Biography
Jake Heggie was born on 31 March 1961 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and began piano lessons at age seven. After graduating from UCLA in 1984 and studying composition with, among others, Ernst Bacon, a focal dystonia in his right hand ended his career as a pianist and turned his focus increasingly to composing. While working for San Francisco Opera, its general director Lotfi Mansouri paired him with playwright Terrence McNally, a collaboration that produced the opera "Dead Man Walking" in 2000. Further successful operas followed, including "Moby-Dick" (2010) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (2016), alongside nearly 300 art songs. Heggie has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005) among other honours and has taught composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2025.
On Stagelog
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