American composer Jake Heggie is best known for Dead Man Walking (2000), the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, with a libretto by Terrence McNally, and his critically acclaimed operas Moby-Dick (2010), Three Decembers (2008), Intelligence (2023), and It’s a Wonderful Life (2016), all with libretti by Gene Scheer. In addition to 10 full-length operas and numerous one-acts, Heggie has composed more than 300 art songs, as well as concerti, chamber music, choral, and orchestral works. His compositions have been performed on five continents, and he regularly collaborates with some of the world’s most beloved artists as both composer and pianist.

Heggie actively seeks out projects that invite a wide range of perspectives and possibilities. In the 24/25 season, he re-teams with choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Urban Bush Women for the world premiere of Earth 2.0, a monodrama commissioned by Fort Worth Symphony, featuring countertenor Key’mon Murrah with Robert Spano conducting. Heggie’s acclaimed collaboration with Margaret Atwood, Songs for Murdered Sisters, appears at Carnegie Hall and Marian Anderson Hall with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A new commission for fast-rising countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen also appears at Carnegie Hall before touring to Houston and Washington, D.C. Following the highly acclaimed Met premiere of Dead Man Walking, the Metropolitan Opera welcomes a stunning Leonard Foglia production of Moby-Dick.

Banner image by James Niebuhr