Because it burst onto American TV screens approach again in 2005, the celebrity-packed aggressive TV dance present Dancing with the Stars has turn into a much-loved fixture on US TV schedules.

After all, viewers change on of their thousands and thousands to look at celebrities strive their hand(s, and toes, and hips) at quite a lot of ever-more taxing dance routines, from samba to tango through foxtrot and paso doble.

However when you’re watching, you will additionally end up captivated by the programme’s thrilling and endlessly various dwell music programme.

Carried out onstage by Dancing with the Stars’ personal in-house orchestra, singers and conductors, the programme’s dwell music is an integral a part of its enormous and enduring enchantment.

However who’s the mastermind behind the programme’s wealthy and intoxicating musical menu?

Who arranges the music on Dancing with the Stars?

For 17 seasons from the present’s starting in 2005, the dwell music for Dancing with the Stars was supplied by conductor Harold Wheeler and his orchestra and singers.

That modified in 2014, when Ray Chew was launched as the brand new band chief. Ray introduced his personal band of musicians and singers with him.

Who’s Ray Chew?

Ray Chew is an American musician who performs keyboards and is a up to date and orchestral arranger. In addition to conducting the music on Dancing with the Stars, Ray’s packed CV consists of work with musicians together with Ashford and Simpson, Diana Ross and Luther Vandross.

How previous is Ray Chew?

Ray Chew was born on 7 September 7, 1968 in New York Metropolis.

The place is Ray Chew from?

Chew grew up within the Grant Homes, a public housing venture on the sting of the Morningside Heights space of Manhattan, New York.

The place was Ray Chew skilled?

On the age of simply six, Chew was supplied a scholarship to review within the kids’s programme at New York’s world-renowned Juilliard Faculty. In a while, Chew studied at Harlem Faculty of the Arts and at Third Avenue Music Faculty Settlement, America’s longest-running group faculty.

What does Ray Chew do on Dancing with the Stars?

On this wat, he performs a really related position on Dancing with the Stars to the job completed by Dave Arch on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing within the UK.

How lengthy has Ray Chew been on Dancing with the Stars?

Ray Chew joined the Dancing with the Stars lineup in 2014, in time for the present’s 18th season – which was gained by Olympic ice dancer Meryl Davis {and professional} dance companion Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

What else has Ray Chew completed?

Ray Chew has labored with a number of major-league musicians. Aged simply 19, he was recruited by legendary songwriting and recording duo Ashford & Simpson (of ‘Stable’ fame) to work as their music director. He is additionally featured, as both pianist or arranger, on a number of recordings by the likes of Diana Ross, Luther Vandross and Roberta Flack.

One in every of Ray Chew’s very first engagements, whereas nonetheless a baby, was taking part in with the band for the legendary TV programme Saturday Night time Reside, from 1980 to 1983. Later in, throughout the Nineties and 2000s, Ray served as music director for the TV sequence Showtime on the Apollo, and as bandleader on the sport present The Singing Bee.

Dancing with the Stars is not Ray’s first main TV gig. He was music director for the Fox TV expertise present American Idol from 2010 to 2013. In 2014, he was musical director for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.