Getting  ready  to land On Eagle's Wing

The eagerly-awaited 'Eagle's Wing' musical has its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia on May 7-8, it heads to Jacksonville, Florida on May 14-15 and Baltimore on May 18-19, before moving to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on Friday-Saturday May 28-29.

John Anderson, the man behind the musical, talks to The Ulster-Scot about how his dreams have come true.

John Anderson's dream project the Ulster Scots musical  'On Eagle's Wing' is gradually  spreading its fledgling wings, away from John's studio in Helen's Bay on the Co Down coastline.

As he composes, John looks westwards across the great Atlantic, where the Ulster-Scots set out on their journey to the promised land of America.For several years now, John's aspiration has been to tell the true story of the Ulster-Scots who built the bedrock of what has become the United States of America and through its frontiersmen, pioneering men of the cloth and whole congregations of dispossessed people from our shores contributed to the story of America.

John admits that it was a very emotional experience for him, as he started seeing the dream become a reality when the show began its dancing and acting auditions in January.

He confirms: "There were hundreds of young dancers stretched round the block at the first set of auditions for the show in London. I simply couldn't believe it.
"We put a wee ad in 'The Stage' newspaper and phoned the major Belfast, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow agents and suddenly I started to see my dreams become a reality.

"It  brought a tear to my eye and even more so, when we saw several young dancers and singers from Northern Ireland, based in London.

"They all seemed to be inspired by the music of 'On Eagle's Wing' when Gail Davies-Sigler, our choreographer started working with them, At last, they could put their traditional Scots and Irish skills to use, on a professional basis.

"All of them were also trained in jazz dance, ballet and tap and those combined with the rhythms of the bagpipes made something very special happen in front of our eyes. We saw people in London, followed that up with Belfast and Dublin and then went to Edinburgh to get our full troupe of dancers."

John says it is very important to teach young people from across the United Kingdom and Ireland about the story, the music  and dance of Scotland, in a celebration of the Scots-Irish culture.

"On my behalf, I knew the music was working, when I was asked by some traditional Scots' musicians whom I met if they could include the 'On Eagle's Wing' theme tune in an anthology of traditional Scots tunes.

"I had to tell them it was an original composition, but it was very flattering that they were so impressed by it. Another odd moment was when I was asked which hymn was included in one of the music sequences.

"Once again, it was one of my own! I suppose the most poignant moment during the auditions was when we got to Edinburgh. Ross Croll, the current Scottish national adult champion, left his hospital bed to meet Gail Davies-Sigler.
"Ross, from Forfar, has his application pending for the Scottish police, but he has been doing Highland dance since the age of five. When he was told about 'On Eagle's Wing', he couldn't let suspected viral meningitis keep him away from auditions.

"His speciality is the Scottish sword dance and when he heard about the show, he realised that this was something that he couldn't miss. Ross is now signed up, along with Ulster, Scottish, Irish and English actors and dancers."

John reveals that stamina is one of the big requirements of a top-class international show like this. "This takes a totally different style of professional performer to pull this off. Gail Davies-Sigler is based in Las Vegas and has choreographed for the American Superbowl and for Disney.

"She has recruited multi-skilled show dancers, who can learn routines in minutes and will dance all day if required. I was worn out just watching them," says John.
"The great thing is that these dancers will now be learning Scottish skills alongside the other requirements for the show and that will start to spread those skills throughout the world."

The next exciting stage for John Anderson is when the entire production team, actors and dancers base themselves in Belfast. That will be another learning curve!
"They'll need their porridge and Ulster Fry for breakfast then," laughs John. "I'm really looking forward to showing them the city.

"Ross's granny has already got a party of 40 lined up from Forfar to come to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast to see 'On Eagle's Wing' and one of our Dublin dancers, whose father comes from Kircubbin, has 200 relatives waiting to book tickets.
"That's  publicity Northern Ireland needs!"

John Anderson, - writer and composer of 'On Eagle's Wing' - is one of Northern Ireland's most widely experienced producer / directors.

Coming from an academic music background, John has since made his career in the music business and broadcasting.  Having his own recording studios, record label and publishing company, John has vast experience in the record industry, having personally had a number of 'hit' records.

He is also the presenter of many popular radio and TV programmes and has valuable experience in the initiation and administration of large and small scale music projects, (e.g. television series, album concepts and live events).

Having also had a 'parallel' career as a performing musician, this has given John important insight into the requirements on both sides of the camera.   Another area of experience for him has been a considerable amount of work in news, current affairs, sport and documentaries.

After teaching for seven years, John worked for the BBC as a producer for nine years.  He was then executive producer  with UTV where he produced and directed all the in-house music productions, programmes which have sold around the world.   He decided to leave three years ago to become a freelance producer/director and dedicate himself to composing.

He has considerable experience as a record-producer/arranger in this area, producing very successful albums for many top Irish artistes.
In the theatre John has vast experience as composer and musical director in theatre.

He is also a radio producer and presenter currently with a very popular long-running one hour weekly show on BBC.  

Peter Corry, narrator in 'On Eagle's Wing' is a Belfast man who became known amongst other things for his portrayal of Javert, the obsessive police inspector in Les Miserables.

Peter has played the role in London, Dublin and on tour throughout the United Kingdom, notching up more than 1,000 performances in this sell-out Cameron MacIntosh production.

Peter's career took off when he won the television contest 'Go For It'.  A string of highly successful concerts won the hearts of local audiences, a feat he was later to repeat around Britain.  His stage career started in the Music Theatre London, playing Guglielmo in 'Cosi Fan Tutte' and Figaro in 'The Marriage of Figaro'.
Last year, after basing himself back in Northern Ireland, he created the role of Nasoise in a new musical 'Black Sunrise' at Dublin's National Concert Hall.
Over the past 12 months Peter has been kept busy on the concert platform, performing in the Masters of Musicals throughout the UK.  He has also toured Germany with the Irish Harp Orchestra and has just returned from a tour of Holland.  He is about to embark on an extensive concert tour of Europe and Australia.  And as an actor he has toured in numerous plays.
Peter has many other concert performance credits, appearing all over the UK and throughout Europe, including sell-out concerts with the Ulster Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra in the National Concert Hall.

The diversity of his musical and acting talents have also lead to numerous television and radio programmes including presenting his own programme series on BBC television and radio.

Alyth McCormack, a leading performer in 'On Eagle's Wing', is one of the most exciting singers on the Scottish folk scene.  Her debut CD entitled 'An Iomall' has received great reviews.

She was born and raised on the Island of Lewis and is immersed in the culture of the Scottish Islands.  Her love of the culture and wish for the traditions to develop and survive combined with her love of performing led her to take up singing at an early age.

Many of Alyth's songs are in gaelic, but her thoughtful arrangements, and her  subtle, intimate delivery speaks volumes in itself.  Alyth has been touring for the past year.

She performed in New York for the first time as part of  'Distilled - Scotland live in New York' and is looking forward to her return visit.

Tickets for 'On Eagle's Wing' at the Odyssey in Belfast on May 28-29 are priced from £27.50 - £32.50 and can be purchased at:
Odyssey Box Office: 028 9073 9074 24 hr Hotline: 0870 243 4455 or www.ticketmaster.ie. Tickets may be subject to a service charge.