During high school, he played in and wrote for various bands, ranging from rock and roll to Rhythm and blues to jazz.
He attended Miami-Dade College for two years before transferring to the University of Southern California, where he studied history and philosophy.
[1] In the popular music arena, Wildhorn has worked with such artists as Stacy Lattisaw, Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Trisha Yearwood, Tracy Lawrence, Trace Adkins, Patti LaBelle, Dennis DeYoung, and Linda Eder, to whom he was married.
[7] Wildhorn is also the first Broadway musician to work with the Takarazuka Revue on the Cosmos Troupe's production of the musical Never Say Goodbye.
Other musicals include Camille Claudel, which ran in 2003 at the Goodspeed Opera House and a short developmental run at the NYMT Festival in 2004, and Waiting for the Moon starring Lauren Kennedy and Jarrod Emmick in New Jersey in 2005, with the musical being renamed Zelda for a run at Flatrock Playhouse in 2012.
In 2014, he announced his engagement to Yoka Wao, a former Takarazuka male-role top star who played the lead role in Never Say Goodbye and the Japanese production of Dracula.
[15] Wildhorn produced and composed a majority of Linda Eder's solo albums and is widely recognized for his ability to release a score before the show opens and have it sell really well.
Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War, and Bonnie & Clyde also received nominations for Outstanding Musical by the Outer Critics Circle.