Jake Heggie

By: Julian Chavez | April 20, 2010 | Profile

Jake Heggie is a renowned composer and pianist.  Some of his credits include the acclaimed operas Dead Man Walking (libretto: McNally), Three Decembers (libretto: Scheer), The End of the Affair (libretto: McDonald), the lyric drama To Hell and Back (libretto: Scheer), and the musical scene At the Statue of Venus (libretto: McNally). 

He is also a mentor to Songfest, a summer program hosted at Pepperdine.  More info on the performing workshop can be found here: Songfest

What inspired you to work in the entertainment business?
I knew I wanted to be in music from my first piano lesson at age 7. Once I felt how music could touch and inspire the heart in ways that words cannot, I was hooked. Getting to do interesting, exciting, challenging projects with great colleagues keeps me hooked! 

In one or two sentences, how would you describe the current state of the industry?
In transition, but not healthy. We’ve been paying a terrible price as a country ever since music was taken out of the core curriculum of most schools. Not exactly sure how opera fits into “the industry,” but I do know it’s always a struggle. Music and the arts take time, time to create and time to experience fully. Time and reflection — that is not something our world encourages these days. 

In your opinion, what constitutes great storytelling?
Number one: a great story to be told! Seems simple, but finding it is 50 percent of the work. Number two: the right combination of talent to find a clear, fresh, concise and challenging way to tell it. 

What contemporary artists do you admire and why?
The ones with great passion, who inspire that passion in others, especially in young children who need a sense of hope and promise in their lives. Transformative artists in every discipline. 

Please list your top-five films of the decade and why.
It’s awfully hard to name just five, but in the top would be Milk, Little Miss Sunshine, The Hours, The Devil Wears Prada, and Billy Elliot. They all inspire me for different reasons; they make me laugh, give me hope, and really move and delight me. 

What do you consider your greatest career achievement?
Making my life as an American opera composer in the 21st Century! Who knew that was even possible? My first opera, Dead Man Walking, has been produced all over the world and my fourth opera, Moby-Dick, opens April 30 in Dallas and already has five international productions. 

What do you consider your greatest career failure?
Not yet having found a way to help get music back in schools permanently so that kids experience it from the inside — as a creator and performer. It could save the world, and that is not an exaggeration. 

What do you believe is the biggest problem currently facing the entertainment business?
We have gotten ourselves into quite a pickle. For decades, we’ve played to the lowest common denominator and spelled everything out so that people don’t have to think for themselves. Now we have a public that wants sound bites, has little curiosity and no time for reflection. Again, I believe getting music and creative thinking back into the schools would open up an enormous sense of possibility in this business. 

What new technology currently having an impact on your industry are you most excited about and why? What technology are you most afraid of and why?
In the opera world, stage directors have been able to glean a great deal from the film industry — bringing spectacular visuals to the stage using digital technology, film, projections, etc. Opera productions are getting to be quite spectacular, and there is great motion to broaden and expand this. 

I am most fearful of amplification creeping into opera, because the entire point is to hear these glorious unamplified voices and acoustic orchestras telling overwhelming human dramas. 

What is the best career advice you’ve ever received, and who gave it to you?
My first composition teacher, Ernst Bacon, told me at 17 years old: Finish what you start, and don’t throw any of your ideas away.

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