About Jake
“Arguably the world’s most popular 21st century opera and art song composer” (The Wall Street Journal), Jake Heggie is best know for his acclaimed operas Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, It’s A Wonderful Life, Great Scott, Three Decembers, Two Remain and If I Were You. Heggie’s operas and nearly 300 art songs have been performed extensively on five continents, championed by some of the world’s most celebrated and beloved artists. Major productions have taken place in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Dresden, London, Vienna, Madrid, Sydney, Montreal, Calgary and Copenhagen. Dead Man Walking – “the most celebrated American opera of the 21st century” (Chicago Tribune) – has received 70 international productions and two live recordings since its San Francisco Opera premiere, making it the most widely performed new opera of our time. It is scheduled for the 2020/21 Season at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in a new production by director Ivo van Hove, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.
Recent premieres have included Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope, a dramatic song cycle for mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and violinist Daniel Hope commissioned by Music at Kohl Mansion to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Heggie has also orchestrated this cycle for the Cabrillo Festival for performances to be conducted by Cristian Macelaru with Sasha Cooke and violinist Benjamin Beilman. He has also set new poetry by Margaret Atwood for baritone Joshua Hopkins and is at work on his next opera, INTELLIGENCE (libretto by Gene Scheer), starring Jamie Barton and commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera for the Fall of 2021. Unexpected Shadows, a new album of Heggie songs performed by Jamie Barton, is being released this year by Pentatone Music.
Heggie was the 2016 keynote speaker for the National Association of Schools of Music and has delivered commencement addresses at Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music. He is also a frequent guest artist at festivals, universities and conservatories internationally. Jake Heggie lives in San Francisco with his husband, Curt Branom.