Michael Hatfield is Professor of Music and Chair of the Brass Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington. The Indiana native studied both trumpet and horn in his youth but also had early ambitions towards a career in the television industry as a producer or director. At Indiana University  he earned both the Bachelor of Science degree and the first Performer's Certificate in Horn granted by that institution under the tutelage of Verne Reynolds. During that time Hatfield also studied at the Aspen Music Festival each summer with Christopher Leuba and Philip Farkas.

Upon graduation in 1958, he joined the Indianapolis Symphony as assistant principal horn. The following season he moved to third horn where he performed until 1961, when he was appointed principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a position he would hold for the next 23 years. While in Cincinnati, Hatfield also served as Adjunct Professor and Chair of the Brass, Woodwind, and Percussion Division at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, and was a member of the Cincinnati Woodwind Quintet, with his principal colleagues from the Symphony.  Summers he returned to Aspen where he played second horn to Philip Farkas in the Aspen Festival Orchestra from 1960-68.  In 1972 he became co-principal of that orchestra and joined the faculty of the Festival, positions he would hold until 1989.

Michael Hatfield joined the faculty at Indiana University in 1984, replacing his mentor, the legendary Philip Farkas, upon his retirement. In the summers he was also principal horn of the Santa Fe Opera and a faculty member of the Grand Teton Festival Institute, performing in its Orchestra.

He was a guest artist at the International Horn Society workshops in 1983 and 1985, and has lectured at many other regional and international IHS events, the most recent being the 1998 Midwest Regional and Southwestern Horn Workshops. Hatfield is the Scholarship Chairman for the IHS and recently completed his second term  on its Advisory Council. In 2000, he was elected to the Board of Directors of Cormont Music where he offers input into the planning and execution of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp and its scholarship program.