Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as “arguably the world’s most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer,” Jake Heggie recently joined SFCM’s composition faculty as the Diane Wilsey Distinguished Professor of Composition.

Heggie is best known for Dead Man Walking, the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years, and his critically acclaimed operas Moby-Dick, Three Decembers, and It’s a Wonderful Life. Heggie’s 10 full-length operas, numerous one-acts, and more than 300 art songs have been performed on five continents. In 2025, he was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year and inducted into the Opera Hall of Fame.

Heggie actively seeks out projects that invite a wide range of perspectives. Intelligence, based on the true story of women who infiltrated the Confederate White House, won the 2026 Grammy for Best Opera Recording. Songs for Murdered Sisters, Heggie’s collaboration with Margaret Atwood addressing gender-based violence, was nominated for Classical Album of the Year at the Juno Awards. Heggie enjoys longstanding creative partnerships with mezzos Frederica von Stade, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, and Jamie Barton, whose Heggie project Unexpected Shadows earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Heggie continues to write all his work by hand, believing that a visceral, physical connection to the score is an essential part of composition. He is currently completing The Judgment of Paris, which reimagines the 1976 blind tasting that put Napa Valley wine on the global stage and will premiere at Festival Napa Valley this summer.

Heggie has found it especially meaningful to give back to students – to share what he’s learned – by participating in mentorship programs for young composers, as well as artist residencies at universities, conservatories, and summer programs worldwide.

Since 1993, Heggie has made his home in San Francisco, where he lives with his husband, Curt Branom.