Composer Biography
Prior to the spectacular success of his Riverdance composition at Eurovision ’94, Bill Whelan was well known in Ireland as a composer of music for theater and television, and as a record producer with a number of Irish and International hits to his name. His production and arranging credits include, among others, U2, Van Morrison, Kate Bush, Richard Harris, Johnny Logan, Paul Brady, Tanita Tikaram and the Dubliners.
He has worked extensively in theater. His adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore had successful runs at London’s Old Vic, Melbourne and Sydney, and received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. Since 1989, when he was appointed as composer to the W.B. Yates International Theatre Festival at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, he has written original music for 15 Yeats plays.
His work with Irish traditional music and musicians has occupied much of his time since 1980 when he was a member of the legendary Planxty. He also produced records for many artists including Andy Irvine, Patrick Street, Stockton’s Wing, Davy Spillane and the Bulgarian/Irish band, East Wind.
In 1987, he wrote his first major orchestral suite commemorating the film music of the noted composer Sean O’Riada, which was conducted by Elmer Bernstein and performed by the Irish National Symphony Orchestra. His own compositional work in films includes Lamb, starring Liam Neeson, RTE’s thriller Twice Shy and Donald Taylor Black’s award-winning At The Cinema Palace. His emotive score for the Terry George/Jim Sheridan film Some Mother’s Son was the No. 1 movie on release in Ireland, and the soundtrack album a Top 20 hit. Whelan recently completed the score for the film version of Dancing at Lughnasa starring Meryl Streep.
His specially commissioned orchestral work, The Seville Suite, received its European premiere performance at the Maestranza in Seville as part of the celebrations for Ireland’s National Day Expo ’92. The last movement of this work was danced by Maria Pages, who currently appears in Riverdance—The Show. His next large-scale orchestral work, The Spirit of Mayo, was first performed in 1993 by an 85-piece orchestra in Dublin’s National Concert Hall. Together with the choral group ANUNA, this piece also featured a powerful Celtic drum corps and a 200 strong choir. Whelan’s recent CD, The Roots of Riverdance, features selections from these works. The album chronicles the musical history and myriad of cultural influences which inspired him to write the acclaimed Riverdance.
Riverdance was, of course, composed especially for the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest; an orchestral piece conceived for hard-shoe Irish dance and televised to a European audience of 300 million viewers. As a single release, Riverdance spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Irish charts and was a Top Ten hit in the U.S. The album of Bill Whelan’s music from Riverdance—The Show has been a huge chart success, and the CD is a certified Platinum record in Ireland, Australia and in the U.S.
Bill was honored with a 1997 Grammy Award when the Riverdance record was named the "Best Musical Show" album.
"Largely because of the success of Riverdance, Irish music is impacting the pop music market as never before. It’s hard to believe, for example, that the highly popular score for the film Titanic would have emerged as it did without the prior existence of Bill Whelan’s remarkable music for Riverdance." -- Don Heckman, The Los Angeles Times