Jake Heggie

A pianist and composer of several operas, “dramatic scenes,” and song cycles, Jake Heggie has achieved great success and fame with his vocal works.

Photo: Jake Heggie, jakeheggie.com

Print This Page

Audio

Track:

    About

    Born in Florida, Heggie played piano from a young age and studied at the University of California after a few years of study in Paris. In 1998, his opera Dead Man Walking, premiered by San Francisco Opera, was received with great acclaim and has been revived around the world (including Ireland, Sweden, and Australia). His other operas include The End of an Affair, To Hell and Back, Three Decembers and Moby Dick, which premiered at Dallas Opera in April 2010. His dramatic scenes include At the Statue of Venus and For a Look or a Touch.

    Heggie is also an accomplished composer of song repertoire and has written several song cycles for well-known singers, including Susan Graham, Bryn Terfel and Frederica von Stade. He continues to perform in recital with vocalists as well as give master classes and host discussions about his music. Heggie has lived in San Francisco since 1993.

    –Christie Finn

    Related Information

    Songs

    A Great Hope Fell

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    A Question of Light

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Gene Scheer

    Africa

    Jake Heggie

    Maya Angelou

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    America

    Jake Heggie

    Maya Angelou

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    Ample Make This Bed

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: How Well I Knew the Light

    Angels' Wings

    Jake Heggie

    Gene Scheer

    Song Collection: Rise and Fall

    Back You Go

    Jake Heggie

    Galway Kinnell

    Song Collection: From 'The Book of Nightmares'

    Barb'ry Allen

    Jake Heggie

    Song Collection: Three Folk Songs

    Before the Storm

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Dorothy Parker

    By The Spring, At Sunset

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Of Laughter and Farewell

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Jake Heggie

    Euclid

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    Facing Forward/Looking Back

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Raymond Carver

    Jake Heggie

    Fame

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    From Emily's Garden

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    From 'The Book of Nightmares'

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Galway Kinnell

    Glory

    Jake Heggie

    Julia Ward Howe

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    Goodnight

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    He's Gone Away

    Jake Heggie

    Song Collection: Three Folk Songs

    Here and Gone

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    A. E. Housman

    Vachel Lindsay

    Here, Where the Daisies Fit My Head

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: From Emily's Garden

    How Well I Knew the Light

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    I Catch on Fire

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    Song Collection: The Deepest Desire

    I’m Nobody! Who are You?

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    ICONIC LEGACIES: First Ladies at the Smithsonian

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Gene Scheer

    If You Were Coming in the Fall

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    In a Restaurant

    Jake Heggie

    Galway Kinnell

    Song Collection: From 'The Book of Nightmares'

    In Lands I Never Saw

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: From Emily's Garden

    In Praise of Songs That Die

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Here and Gone

    In the Midst of Thousands

    Jake Heggie

    Frederick Douglass

    Song Collection: These Strangers

    It Makes No Difference Abroad

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: From Emily's Garden

    Letter to President Lincoln from Annie Davis, 1864

    Jake Heggie

    Annie Davis

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    Love

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    Song Collection: The Deepest Desire

    More is Required

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    Song Collection: The Deepest Desire

    My Father's Eyes

    Jake Heggie

    Galway Kinnell

    Song Collection: From 'The Book of Nightmares'

    Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Not In a Silver Casket

    Jake Heggie

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia

    Of Laughter and Farewell

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Ophelia's Song

    Jake Heggie

    Jake Heggie

    Song Collection: Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia

    Primary Colors

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    Song Collection: The Deepest Desire

    Prologue: Once More - To Gloriana

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    Prologue: Ships That Pass in the Night

    Jake Heggie

    Paul Laurence Dunbar

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    Rise and Fall

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Gene Scheer

    Silence

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    Some Times of Day

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Raymond Carver

    Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Songs to the Moon

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Spring

    Jake Heggie

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia

    That I Did Always Love

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: Newer Every Day: Songs for Kiri

    The Breaking Waves

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    The Deepest Desire

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    The Deepest Desire

    Jake Heggie

    Sister Helen Prejean

    Song Collection: The Deepest Desire

    The Factory Window Song

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Here and Gone

    The Haughty Snail-King

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    The Leather-Winged Bat

    Jake Heggie

    Song Collection: Three Folk Songs

    The Moon Is a Mirror

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky (What the Little Girl Said)

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    The Old Horse in the City

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: The Moon Is a Mirror

    The Strength of the Lonely (What the Mendicant Said)

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: The Moon Is a Mirror

    The Sun Kept Setting

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: How Well I Knew the Light

    The Thin Edge

    Jake Heggie

    Dorothy Parker

    Song Collection: Before the Storm

    These Strangers

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Frederick Douglass

    Walt Whitman

    These Strangers, in a foreign World

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: These Strangers

    The Work at Hand

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Laura Morefield

    Three Folk Songs

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    To a Stranger, #52 from Leaves of Grass

    Jake Heggie

    Walt Whitman

    Song Collection: These Strangers

    To Make a Prairie

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Song Collection: From Emily's Garden

    Under the Blessing of Your Psyche Wings

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Of Laughter and Farewell

    Was My Brother in the Battle?

    Jake Heggie

    Stephen Foster

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    What the Forester Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: The Moon Is a Mirror

    What the Gray-Winged Fairy Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    What the Miner in the Desert Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: The Moon Is a Mirror

    What the Rattlesnake Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    What the Scarecrow Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    What the Snowman Said

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: The Moon Is a Mirror

    When Johnny Comes Marching Home

    Jake Heggie

    Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore

    Song Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

    White in the Moon

    Jake Heggie

    A. E. Housman

    Winter Roses

    Song Collection

    Jake Heggie

    Emily Dickinson

    Raymond Carver

    Women Have Loved Before

    Jake Heggie

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Song Collection: Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia

    Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be (What Grandpa Told the Children)

    Jake Heggie

    Vachel Lindsay

    Song Collection: Songs to the Moon

    You Scream

    Jake Heggie

    Galway Kinnell

    Song Collection: From 'The Book of Nightmares'

    Videos

    Recordings

    An American Song Album

    (Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and Jake Heggie)

    2019

    A Certain Slant of Light

    (Aaron Copland, Jake Heggie and Michael Tilson Thomas)

    2018

    The Moon's A Gong, Hung In The Wild: Songs By Jake Heggie

    (Raymond Carver, Jake Heggie, Vachel Lindsay, Sister Helen Prejean and Gene Scheer)

    2015

    Heggie: Connection - Three Song Cycles

    (Jake Heggie)

    2014

    The Hours Begin to Sing

    (William Bolcom, John Corigliano and Jake Heggie)

    2013

    Passing By

    (Raymond Carver, Jake Heggie, A. E. Housman, Vachel Lindsay and Edna St. Vincent Millay)

    2010

    Heggie: For a Look or a Touch / Laitman: The Seed of a Dream

    (Jake Heggie and Lori Laitman)

    2008

    Flesh and Stone: Songs of Jake Heggie

    (Raymond Carver, Emily Dickinson, Jake Heggie, Sister Helen Prejean, Gene Scheer and Anne Sexton)

    The Deepest Desire

    (Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Jake Heggie)

    2006

    Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song

    (Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)

    2004

    American Songs (Jennifer Larmore)

    (Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Jake Heggie, Lee Hoiby, Charles Ives, Charles Naginski and John Jacob Niles)

    1997

    Sheet Music

    Music of Jake Heggie

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Buy via Bill Holab Music

    A Question of Light

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Buy via Bill Holab Music

    Rise and Fall

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Song(s): 1. Water Stone (Noguchi)
    2. Incantation Bowl
    3. Angel's Wings
    4. The Shaman

    Buy via Bill Holab Music

    The Deepest Desire

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Song(s): 1. More is Required
    2. Love
    3. I Catch on Fire
    4. The Deepest Desire
    5. Primary Colors

    Buy via Bill Holab Music

    The Faces of Love (Book 1)

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Voice Type: High

    Buy via E. C. Schirmer

    The Faces of Love (Book 2)

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Buy via E. C. Schirmer

    The Faces of Love (Book 3)

    Composer(s): Jake Heggie

    Song(s): 1. Barb'ry Allen
    2. He's Gone Away
    3. The Leather-Winged Bat

    Voice Type: Medium

    Buy via E. C. Schirmer

    Support us and help us grow

    Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.