Three pairs of golden ears
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Pictured left to right this morning at Seoul’s new Lotte Concert Hall:
Michael Fine, independent record producer, former head of Deutsche Grammophon
Myung Whun Chung, former music director of the Seoul Philharmonic
Yasuhisa Toyota, international concerthall acoustician.
photo: Tammy Saylor Fine
from left to right:
Michael Fine was never the “head of Deutsche Grammophon”. He was the Head of A&R at DG for a few years at the end of the 90’s. He was fired from the company, under very unpleasant circumstances, as he himself has written and admitted, for having tried to have the company sold to a group of investors, himself and Maestro Chung included, behind the backs and without the knowledge of his superiors at Deutsche Grammophon and PolyGram. The company’s senior management had such high suspicions that he was up to something, that they went so far as hiring a team of private detectives to trail Michael Fine and finally got him to tell about his underhanded plan to the detective himself. Everything was recorded. His fate was sealed and he was immediately fired from his job at Deutsche Grammophon and PolyGram did not pursue him further. A very bizarre and unfortunate failed DG appointment, one of many at the yellow label during that dark period in its history.