Michael Fuller has a unique experience and profile during a career encompassing roles as Double Bass player, Chief Executive and Board Chair.

Michael has been a member of the Double Bass section of the Philharmonia Orchestra since 2010 and has enjoyed performing, recording and touring with many of the world’s great conductors and musicians. 

An active member in the orchestra’s self-governing structure, Michael has been a member of the orchestra Board for most of his time at the Philharmonia. In 2018 he was elected Chair of the Orchestra and in 2019 was asked to step in as Interim Managing Director to lead artistic and business operations during a 15-month interregnum period from June 2019 to September 2020. 

During his time as Chair and Interim MD he led the recruitment of the Philharmonia’s Principal Conductor Designate Santtu-Matias Rouvali. He also played a leading role in a major governance restructure merging Philharmonia Ltd and Philharmonia Trust, including the recruitment of new Board Chair, Lord King of Lothbury.  He oversaw the creation of a new brand identity and led the orchestra through Covid-19 contingency planning, creating an innovative and critically-acclaimed new series of digital concerts, ‘The Philharmonia Sessions’. 

Michael grew up in California in the San Francisco Bay Area and prior to moving to London to join the Philharmonia, he performed extensively in the United States and Europe.  He played in the Minnesota Orchestra for two seasons from 2008 to 2010, served as Assistant Principal Bass of the New Haven Symphony, and was an active freelance musician in New York City.  Michael was also a founding member and Principal Bass of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, based in Switzerland.

Michael earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City as a student of Timothy Cobb, Principal Bass of the Metropolitan Opera and currently New York Philharmonic. Other influential teachers include Leigh Mesh, Associate Principal at the Met; Shinji Eshima of the San Francisco Opera, and Barry Green.