RIVERDANCE: MUSIC FROM THE SHOW UD53076
The release accompanies the Riverdance stage presentation, which has now been seen by over three million people across the world. Composed by Bill Whelan, produced by Moya Doherty, and directed by John McColgan, Riverdance The Show highlights the excitement of Irish dance and music and has been captivating audiences all over the globe.

Bill Whelan won a coveted Grammy Award in 1997 for his soundtrack to the acclaimed event; in addition, RIVERDANCE - MUSIC FROM THE SHOW (Celtic Heartbeat/Universal Records) held the #1 position on the Billboard World Music Chart for over 6 months and is certified double platinum in Ireland and Australia, gold twice in the UK, and gold in Norway, the U.S. and Canada and platinum in the US.

Bill was also named Billboard Magazine's Top World Music Artist for 1996 & 1997 and the RIVERDANCE album was the Top World Music Album for 1997 for the second consecutive year. The soundtrack features 15 of Whelan's compositions, and captures the traditional beauty of Celtic music with new melodies that evoke sounds from Russian, Spanish, Eastern European, and American music.

ROOTS OF RIVERDANCE UD53106
Answering to the demand for more Celtic music styling, Bill Whelan has compiled ROOTS OF RIVERDANCE, a collection of 12 titles which provide an insight into his innovative approach to Irish music. This important album chronicles the musical history and myriad of cultural influences which inspired him to write the acclaimed "Riverdance."

ROOTS features the tracks "Caracena" and "The Coast Of Galicia" from Whelan's first major orchestral composition THE SEVILLE SUITE, along with two tracks from the soundtrack to the film "Some Mother's Son," also fully composed by Whelan. Also included are selections from the EASTWIND album, his collaboration with Davy Spillane into the world of Eastern European music, and new music recorded from his commissioned orchestral work "The Spirit Of Mayo."

DANCING AT LUGHNASA SK60585
After achieving international acclaim and recognition for his composition of "Riverdance" in 1994, composer Bill Whelan has once again turned his attention to the cinema in creating the score and soundtrack for Dancing At Lughnasa. Dancing At Lughnasa tells the story of five colourful sisters, barely surviving on a hardscrabble farm in 1930's Ireland, and the powerful moment that changes their lives forever.

This is director Pat O'Connor's version of the International stage success by Irish playwright Brian Friel. Whelan's score for Dancing At Lughnasa combines the texture and strains of traditional Irish music with a sensibility singularly informed by both classical and popular musical styles.

Most of the music for the film is an orchestral score performed by the Irish Film Orchestra under the direction of Proinnsias O'Duinn, with the final song, Whelan's setting of the poem "Down By The Salley Gardens" by WB Yeats sung by Dolores Keane.

The title track, "Dancing At Lughnasa" is composed for traditional ensemble and features such talented artists as Nollaig Casey, fiddle: Mairtin O'Connor, accordion: Davy Spillane, pipes and low whistle: Martin Murray, banjo: Sean D Halpenny, bodhrán: and the composer himself playing drums and percussion.

SOME MOTHER'S SON UD53083
One of the most anticipated and controversial offerings at 1997's Cannes Film Festival, "Some Mother's Son" stars Helen Mirren ("The Madness Of King George," BBC's "Prime Suspect," "The Cook The Thief"). The film was written and produced by Terry George and Jim Sheridan, who is best known for the exceptional film "In The Name Of The Father" and "My Left Foot" films.

From soaring highs to tragic lows, Whelan's emotive score - his first fully self-composed soundtrack - dramatically compliments the moving story of the 1981 IRA hunger-strikers and their families. "The main characters in 'Some Mother's Son' are fictional, but the events are historically accurate," says director Terry George. "During the hunger strike, 21 Irish mothers were faced with the dilemma portrayed in the film. This for me was and is the drama and tragedy of Shakespearean proportions."

The film is told from the perspective of two hunger striker's mothers, Kathleen Quigley (Mirren) and Annie Higgins (Fionnula Flanagan), ordinary Irish women from different backgrounds, who are forced to the center of an epic struggle. The film is a universal drama that is played out every day in Belfast or Beirut, Soweto or South Central, LA.

THE SEVILLE SUITE TARACD 3030
The Seville Suite was composed in 1992 by Riverdance composer Bill Whelan. After many years of producing and performing, this was to be Bill's first major orchestral composition. Through music, Whelan tells the historical story of the legendary Red Hugh O'Donnell and his journey - after his defeat at the Battle of Kinsale - to La Coruna in Spain.

The piece follows that journey from that infamous battle to O'Donnell's arrival and welcome by the Spanish Earl of Caracena. Commissioned in 1992 by the Irish Prime Minister's office to commemorate Ireland's participation at the European cultural exposition (entitled Expo '92), The Seville Suite served as a wonderful reflection of the event. The Seville Suite received its European Premiere at the Maestranza concert hall in Seville on October 4, 1992.

Performed by a 50 piece orchestra, the piece featured soloists Davy Spillane, Mairtin O'Connor, Mel Mercier and Mairead Nesbitt, many of whom were later to appear in Riverdance. The last movement of the work was danced by Maria Pagés, who also later became a featured performer in Riverdance The Show.

EASTWIND TARA CD 3027
This 1992 project by Andy Irvine and Davy Spillane explores the unique rhythms found in Bulgarian and Macedonian music. Bill Whelan's involvement manifested itself in his arranging and producing the album as well as performing alongside some of Ireland's finest musicians, Mairtin O'Connor, Anthony Drennan, Noel Eccles, Kenneth Edge, Michael O'Súilleabháin as well as Bulgarian musician Nikola Parov who later appeared in Riverdance The Show.

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