Earl Wild was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is an American pianist known especially for his transcriptions of classical music and jazz. Wild is recognized widely as a leading virtuoso of his generation. Harold C. Schonberg called him a supervirtuoso in the Horowitz class.

Wild was a precocious child and studied under Selmar Janson, Simon Barere and Egon Petri, amongst others. As a teenager, he started making transcriptions of romantic music and composition that were regularly performed on the local radio station.

He is said to have been the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television (in 1939, in his capacity as staff pianist for NBC), and also the first pianist to stream a performance over the internet (in 1997).

During World War II, Mr. Wild served in the United States Navy as a musician, playing 4th flute in the Navy Band. He performed numerous solo piano recitals at the White House for President Roosevelt and played twenty-one piano concertos with the U.S. Navy Symphony Orchestra at the Departmental Auditorium, National Gallery, and other venues in Washington, D.C. During those two years in the Navy he was frequently requested to accompany First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to her many speaking engagements, where he performed the National Anthem as a prelude to her speeches.

In 1942, Arturo Toscanini invited him for a performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the first for orchestra and soloist, which was a resounding success and made him a household name. After the war Earl Wild moved to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company (ABC) as a staff pianist, conductor and composer until 1968. Wild is renowned for masterclasses he held throughout the world, from Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo to the United States.

Starting in the 1950's, when being open about homosexuality posed an enormous risk to artists in any field, Mr. Wild dropped enough hints to become a gay icon among certain classical music lovers.

Since 1987 he has lived in Columbus, Ohio, with his companion, recording producer Michael Rolland Davis.

In 1996, Carnegie Mellon honored Mr. Wild with their Alumni Merit Award and in the fall of 2000 they further honored him with their more prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award.

Mr. Wild is currently working on his memoirs which he hopes to publish soon.