A California native, Wiley was raised in Nevada before returning to California to attend
Stanford University. A music major, he earned a
Bachelor of Arts with departmental honors in choral conducting. He entered
Harvard University in Massachusetts after a tour of military service. His
dissertation at Harvard focused on Tchaikovsky’s ballet
Swan Lake, and he earned a Doctorate in 1974. Later that year he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he teaches presently. Wiley, dubbed "ballet's super sleuth" in 1984 by
Boston Globe, was consulted by the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London for the
Royal Ballet's revivals of
Swan Lake and
The Nutcracker. He has also done translation work for that theater, the
Edinburgh Festival and the
Dallas Opera. His research has taken him four times to Russia and the former USSR, under grant by the American Council of Learned Societies and in conjunction with the International Research and Exchanges Board. He has received other grants from the Guggenheim and Mellon Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 2009's
Tchaikovsky, part of the Master Musicians series published by
Oxford University Press, was critically well received. Michael Church of
The Independent wrote, "Presenting life and art as parallel but separate strands, this coolly magisterial book scotches myths, accepts that some mysteries may never be solved, and builds up a picture of this profoundly conflicted man, and his wondrous music, which will probably never be bettered."
The Washington Times, in its review, agreed that the book was "perhaps [the] definitive biography" of the composer, although reviewer John M. Taylor did qualify that the dense volume is a "fine book for the specialist, but not necessarily the best choice for your next air flight." ==Publications==