Harper was born in Akron, Ohio. His mother was a music teacher, and by age 12 he played the piano in church. He was a graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music, and first worked preparing vocal arrangements for the Broadway musicalHalf a Sixpence in 1965. Harper composed two musicals with book and lyrics by Sherman Yellen. The first was Say Yes! which was produced at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2000. The second was Josephine Tonight!, which was produced by Theatre Building Chicago in 2006, and received praise from The Chicago Sun Times for his fine score. He also composed the Off-Broadway musical, Sensations, and several songs for Irene, as well as dance music for the film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Harper worked as musical director or arranger on Broadway musicals including A Day in Hollywood/A Night in The Ukraine, Nine and My One and Only. He produced the original cast recordings of those musicals, as well as the Pointer Sisters' revival of Ain't Misbehavin and Tommy Tune's Slow Dancin. As a symphony conductor, Harper has conducted such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has performed at The White House for four administrations. Donating his time and experience, Harper served as guest lecturer for the Juilliard School and the Broadway Musical Theatre Project with Tel Aviv University. He began working with Barbara Cook in the mid-1970s as her musical director, accompanist and arranger. Their first major collaboration was a Carnegie Hall concert in January 1975. The two went on to play "clubs, theatres and concert halls worldwide." During Harper's collaboration with Cook, he arranged and conducted the CD, Oscar Winners: The Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II. He produced and arranged It's Better With a Band, for which he wrote the title song and The Disney Album, arranged for symphony orchestra. He co-produced Close as Pages in a Book, celebrating the lyrics of Dorothy Fields, Barbara Cook: Live from London, Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall, As of Today, All I Ask of You, The Champion Season and the CD Barbara Cook Sings Mostly Sondheim. "Cook and Mr. Harper were one of the successful professional marriages in show business. Together, they created intimate piano-and-voice shows for boites and more lavish orchestral concerts for venues such as Carnegie Hall. Harper died of cardiac arrest in New York October 8, 2004.
