Bill Whelan’s production and arranging credits include, among others, U2, Van Morrison and Kate Bush. He has worked extensively in theatre. 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. In 1989, he was appointed composer to the W.B. Yeats International Theatre Festival at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, he wrote original music for 15 Yeats’s plays. He has also composed scores for films including Lamb starring Liam Neeson and Dancing At Lughnasa starring Meryl Streep.

His most famous work, Riverdance, was composed especially for the interval act of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. As a single release, Riverdance spent 18 weeks at No. 1 in the Irish charts and was a Top Ten hit in the UK. Since then it has gone on to play to millions of people world-wide with both the album and video topping the charts around the world. Bill was honoured with a 1997 Grammy Award when the Riverdance record was named the ‘Best Musical Show Album’.