Born Howard Weiss July 29, 1927, in Florida, he attended Julliard. His first Broadway show was a forgotten revue called All Is Love in 1956, for which he wrote a ballet. The more successful My Fair Lady followed, in which he assisted the production's musical director, Franz Allers. He took on similar duties on Oh, Captain! in 1958, assisting Jay Blackton. He was an on-stage pianist on Say, Darling, which led to a job as pianist on A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green; did dance arrangements for Carnival; and was assistant conductor on the original The Sound of Music.

By the late '60s and early '70s, Mr. Howard had graduated to more prominent positions. He did dance and incidental music arrangements on the original Hello, Dolly! (for which he also served as conductor), was musical director and did dance arrangements on 1776 and did dance arrangements for the original productions of Chicago and Annie. During the 1980s, he was musical director on Barnum, Harrigan 'n' Hart, Baby and Stepping Out. For the 1992 retro-musical hit Crazy for You, he provided dance and incidental music arrangements.

When Mr. Howard worked on a show, he tended to stick with it. He worked on two Broadway revivals of Hello, Dolly!, the 1997 revival of 1776 and the 1996 revival of Chicago, repeating the same tasks he had on the originals. He also worked on the movie versions of 1776, Annie and Stepping Out. In later years, Mr. Howard toured with a show called Peter Howard's Broadway. His final Broadway credit was the dance arrangements for Minnelli on Minnelli in 1999.

Source: Playbill