Rachel Fine joined Yale Schwarzman Center as executive director in October 2022 shortly before the Center opened to the public on November 5, 2022.
Between 2015 and 2022, she led as executive director and CEO the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in Fall 2013. During her tenure, she established The Wallis as a major player and leading cultural organization in Los Angeles' burgeoning arts scene; built dynamic artistic partnerships and projects between The Wallis and Los Angeles' cultural and civic organizations; launched and implemented a $55 million campaign; and steered and managed The Wallis successfully through the pandemic.
Prior to her tenure at The Wallis, Fine was executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2010-2015) and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (2007-2010). Fine has held also leadership positions at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and The Juilliard School.
Also a concert pianist, Fine attended the Music Academy of the West and Eastman School of Music. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Irvine, and received the Distinguished Alumna Award from UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Other educational pursuits led her to Yale University from which she holds a Master of Arts in musicology, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where she was a distinguished arts management fellow.
Fine is married to Christopher Hawthorne, formerly the chief design officer for the City of Los Angeles and architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times. Hawthorne teaches courses in journalism, criticism, and urban design at Yale College and the Yale School of Architecture and writes frequently for distinguished publications including the New York Times and New Yorker. Fine and Hawthorne have two daughters and live happily in New Haven, CT.
