The Creative Team of the Highland Saga Show

As a guest at royal shows, Ulrich Lautenschläger was very taken by the uniforms and British military music, but particularly inspired by the Great Highland Bagpipes. The feeling he experienced while watching the famous military „trooping the colour“ parade was such that he wanted to bring precisely thisfeeling to Germany.

The experienced event-manager started realising his dream by very successfully staging a show at the famous Loreley open-air stage, and then creating the “Deutschland  Tattoo - Royal Music Show“, which he presented at the Veltins Arena at Schalke in front of 35,000 listeners in 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile this show has become very popular across the whole of Germany, and appeals to young and old alike. An important part of the success is the “Pipers of the World” formation, which Ulrich initiated in 2012. With the “Highland Saga“ he is fulfilling a further dream. “We create magic moments - that is our main aim! It’s only when I myself get goosebumps and tears in my eyes do i know that this is going to please the public.” says the impresario. His enthusiasm and love of Scottish culture has not gone unrecognised: he was awarded the title of honorary member of the MacKenzie clan by the clan chief himself. Ulrich has chosen to live in Berlin, but in the meantime London and the Scottish Highlands have become homes from home.

Kian Johnston, born and raised in Ireland, is one of the most renowned bagpipers in the world. His father, a Pipe Major in the Irish Guards in the service of the British Crown, paved the way for Kian. At the age of 16, Kian led a pipe band at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, making him the youngest leader at this musical spectacle. As a result, he was honored with a reception by the Royal Household. Kian is one of the "top of the tops" in the bagpiping scene and was already world champion at the age of 16. Alongside his studies in International Management, he has been passing on his expertise to selected students for a long time. With his virtuoso finger technique, he manages to elicit sounds from the Great Highland Bagpipe like no other. For Kian, who composed his first own pieces at the age of 15, "Highland Saga" is a dream come true, as he can contribute his compositions to the creative team and present them to a large audience together with the top musicians.

Principal Director of Music Army/ SO1 Army Music/ Commanding Officer Royal Military School of Music.

As a composer he has had many Royal premieres, writing and arranging music for major events such as Classic FM Live (2018), BBC's Trooping the Colour, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (including the 2010 Australian production), the largest military show in mainland Europe.

He has been a senior music consultant for several international music events and won several competitions including his "Elegy to The Warhorse" reaching number 12 in the UK classical music charts in June 2018. He has now also joined the Highland Saga team as musical advisor in 2022. 

Probably his most emotional role was providing the music for the funeral ceremony of the late Queen Elizabeth II, for which he was partly responsible. He already had many encounters with Her Majesty during her lifetime. For the album "Highland Saga - Scotland My Love" he contributed an emotional highlight with the beautiful piece of music 'Balmoral Farewell'."

Alasdair Hutton has been the voice of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo for the last 28 years. Every summer he entertains guests from all over the world on the famous esplanade of Edinburgh castle.

Has has been a journalist in Australia and Scotland as well as a narrator for the BBC.

He further spent ten years representing the south of Scotland as a member of European parliament and a further ten years as a town counsellor, of those nine acting as mayor. He served for 22 years as a voluntary paratrooper in a famous Scottish battalion and is active for charity organisations helping military veterans.

Corvin started learning piano at the age of seven. After his classical training he increasingly turned his attention towards rock music. He brings a certain “rock-attitude” to the “Highland Saga”, proving masterfully that bagpipe music is not only interesting for folk fans! On reading his musical vita, it becomes apparent that Corvin has a particular affinity to “hard’n’heavy” music events such as the legendary “Wacken Festival” in Germany. He plays/has played with Uli Jon Roth, Saxon and Gamma Ray, but also the famous German folk-rock band Santiano made use of his services. With them and other famous artists he toured New Zealand, Scotland, Japan and many other parts of the world. He is a very experienced studio musician and together with Ian Melrose he is the “backbone” of the POTW band.

Ian Melrose grew up in Ayr, Scotland. His father was a member of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, so traditional Scottish music has been there since childhood. Meanwhile Ian has become one of the world's leading protagonists of the acoustic guitar.

He has participated in over 130 music productions.  In 1996 his path led to Clannad, whom he accompanied as lead guitarist on their '96 world tour. In addition, he played on the grammy-winning Clannad album "Landmarks" and on the 2005 album "Clannad: Live in Concert" and contributed significantly to the success of the folk-rockers. 

Ian has played concerts all over the world, including many major festivals e.g. Montreal Jazz Festival (CAN), Celtic Connections (SCO), Open Strings (D), Dranouter Folk Festival (B), Tartan Week New York (USA) among many others, and he has also done international guitar tours and is in demand world-wide as a workshop-leader. He does studio work for film and television productions and continues to produce and arrange for various artists. In the "Highland Saga" Ian is responsible for arrangements and plays guitar and whistles in the band.