“Arguably the world's most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer…”

The Wall Street Journal

Jake Heggie is the American composer of nine full-length operas, including Dead Man Walking and Great Scott with librettos by Terrence McNally; Moby-Dick, Three Decembers, It’s a Wonderful Life, If I Were You, and Two Remain with librettos by Gene Scheer; and numerous one-acts. He has also composed nearly 300 art songs, as well as chamber, choral, and orchestral works.

This season, Heggie collaborates with Jawole Zollar and Gene Scheer on Intelligence, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to launch their 23/24 season, and a haunting new Ivo van Hove production of Dead Man Walking opens the 23/24 season of The Metropolitan Opera.

Portraits by James Niebuhr

Next Engagement

Shed No Tear

Berkeley Symphony Chamber Series
Piedmont Center for the Arts

April 14, 2024

Featuring Lisa Dehlan, René Mandel

Piedmont / USA

Learn More >

Featured Works

Dead Man Walking

With over 75 productions globally, this opera is based on the work of Sister Helen Prejean, telling the journey of a Louisiana nun who becomes the spiritual advisor to a convicted murderer on death row.

Live recordings from San Francisco Opera and Houston Grand Opera have been released on Erato and Virgin Classics, respectively, and the work’s development was chronicled in the Emmy-nominated documentary And Then One Night: The Making of Dead Man Walking.

Songs for Murdered Sisters

This 28-minute song cycle for baritone and piano or orchestra — with searing words by Margaret Atwood – was created to wake people up to the global epidemic of gender-based violence.

Already an album and a film, the work received its fully orchestrated world premiere in February 2023 with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and baritone Joshua Hopkins, for whom the work was composed.

Overture

This chamber piece for string orchestra was commissioned by John and Paula Gambs for the New Century Chamber Orchestra musicians and Daniel Hope, Music Director and Concertmaster, in celebration of the Orchestra's 30th anniversary season.

The world premiere was presented in February 2023 by the New Century Chamber Orchestra led by Daniel Hope.

A recording of this performance will be available in June 2023, released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Offstage

Jake Heggie is a frequent collaborator with educational institutions and other performing arts organizations, undertaking artist residencies, serving as mentorship faculty, and offering master classes to performers and creators.

For more information on offstage appearances, contact Jake using this form.

Production Images