About Harold Wheeler (musician)
William Harold Wheeler Jr. (July 14, 1943 – June 24, 2026) was an American orchestrator, composer, conductor, arranger, record producer and music director. He received numerous Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for orchestration, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for Hairspray in 2003. == Career == Wheeler first worked in the 1960s as the musical director for Burt Bacharach, making him the first African-American MD of a major pop artist. He also did arranging for Tony Orlando and Nina Simone during that time. In 2004, he served as music conductor for the 76th Academy Awards, becoming only the second African-American conductor in the award show's history. He also was a music arranger on the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. Wheeler was one of two conductors (the others being fellow composers John Williams and Paul Shaffer) during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was the musical director on ABC's Dancing with the Stars for the show's first 17 seasons. He was replaced by former American Idol bandleader Ray Chew as musical director starting with the show's 18th season in 2014.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.