Harold Wright was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania and began playing the clarinet at age twelve. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied clarinet with the Philadelphia Orchestra's principal clarinetist, Ralph McLane, and chamber music with that orchestra's principal oboist, Marcel Tabuteau.
Upon graduating from Curtis, Mr. Wright joined the Houston Symphony and a year later became principal clarinetist of the Dallas Symphony. For many summers he participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and the Casals Festival Orchestra and was a frequent guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Concerts, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the chamber music concerts at the 92nd Street "Y" in New York. He also appeared frequently with such leading string quartets as the Budapest, Guarneri, Vermeer, and Juilliard. In 1970 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal clarinet and taught at New England Conservatory, Boston University, and the Tanglewood Music Center until his untimely death in August 1993. He has left a legacy of memorable recordings.