Jake Heggie's first opera, Dead Man Walking, based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera and received its world premiere in October of 2000 to extraordinary international acclaim. In May 2000, Heggie was honored with full concerts devoted to his music at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall (presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center) and San Francisco's Herbst Theatre (presented by San Francisco Performances).

MuST
How did you get into the business of music?

Jake
I started playing the piano when I was about six or seven. We had an apartment-size piano, and we always had music in our house, because my father was a saxophonist. I was very lucky I grew up in Ohio at a time when we had music in school almost everyday. Whether it was choral singing, we did art, we did little musicals, little productions and all through high school, that was the way it was. We had three orchestras, a marching band, a wind ensemble, and they started doing operas. It was an amazing thing. I can't tell you how much it enriched my life.

MuST
What is one of your earliest memorable experiences with music?

Jake
My first day of piano lessons, I was, I don't remember, maybe six or seven. They taught us a tune that we could learn right away. It was called "Hot Cross Buns," it was right on the black keys! And I just remember coming home. I had to go and play and play it for everybody. Look what I learned! I can do this! And that memory came to me on opening night of the opera, Dead Man Walking, and thinking that in 32 years I had gone from learning "Hot Cross Buns" to creating a full blown opera!

But the feeling was sort of the same. Whereas in one day I had figured out "Hot Cross Buns," 32 years later, I'm sitting in this auditorium with this tremendous group of performers, amazing orchestra and conductor, all this magnificent scenery, a huge crowd, and thinking, "Wow, I could do that, and I never knew that I could! It's the most amazing feeling, because it's something that you're sharing. You've conquered it yourself, but then you can share it with others.

MuST
What advice would you give a young person who is unsure of the extent of their own talent?

Jake
I would put it in terms of, they know what it's like to be inside playing sports, most everybody does, whatever sport it is, being part of a team. When you create something musically, as a performer, as a composer, as an artist, as a dancer, you're on the inside of something really magical and inexplicable. And when you get inside of it and you feel that joy, it doesn't really matter if everybody out there loves it. That's not the point of it ¢ it's that it resonates inside of you and you feel so connected to something larger than yourself, yet so much a part of yourself.

It's just an amazing thing, and I would just say, "Just go for it and have a good time!" That's the whole thing with what we do. If you're not having a fun, the audience is not going to have fun, so you might as well just have a good time!

MuST
When you were growing up and discovering music, did you have a musical mentor?

Jake
Oh, absolutely. I was blessed with really wonderful teachers, from my first piano teacher in Ohio to when I was in high school and had Anna Maria Millard, who made an exception and let me take lessons twice a week. She gave me a good deal.

When I came out here, I had this private teacher, Dorris Molleard, and I studied with a really wonderful composer, Ernst Bacon, but I always had people looking out for me and pushing me a little further. I was very lucky in that way. And teachers that really loved and cared and nurtured you and wanted you to enjoy it. If you weren't enjoying it, they knew you weren't going to go anywhere with it. But they saw potential and all the possibilities and they found ways to open up parts of myself that maybe I wouldn't have been aware of.

So I was very blessed with the private teachers and the teachers that we had in school. We had dedicated music and arts teachers and theater teachers, and it was a really rare and wonderful experience. I was really lucky all the way along.

And it was in college that I found my greatest mentor, Joanna Harris, who not only became my piano teacher but my composition teacher and a teacher about life, making me understand that the phrase in that particular Chopin Nocturne or Ballade referred directly to what I was looking at in the countryside. She would make it all come alive. It was all interconnected and it all was about being human and the things we experience.

One of the ways you know if music is right for you as a life course and a career course you just feel this incredible passion. When you see a great athlete, you see the passion on their face and the passion in their performance, and when you see a great performer on the stage, whether it's a classical performer, rock, pop, jazz, whatever, instrumental, vocal you can see the passion and you can feel it.

It takes that kind of passion and commitment, because art isn't easy, as Stephen Sondheim said. It's a lot of hard work. A lot of putting yourself on the line. But the payoffs are just tremendous. The emotional rewards that you get from that kind of passion and commitment are absolutely incredible.

MuST
What role does discipline play in pursuing your art form?

Jake
That belongs to you forever. No one can take that away from you. When you create something or you achieve something, like when you accomplish that Gilbert and Sullivan phrase, that belongs to you forever. No one can ever erase that message. You did the work, and that's a part of you.

MuST
What means the most to you in your work?

Jake
I think what means the most to me is working with friends like Flicka. People that you care about is something wonderful. It's the people in your life that mark the important occasions. If there aren't people that you care about to share those things, family, friends, loved ones, none of it really matters that much. But when you're creating something with someone who's so dear to you, that's the thing I value the most, are the people I know, the teachers I've had, the people that helped putting everything together, because you do become bonded together forever in a way because it took all of you to make it happen.

MuST
If you could do it over again, is there anything you'd do differently?

Jake
I would have learned singing. It's the most magical form of communication there is. It's from heart to heart, without anything in the way. It's the first thing we know in terms of music, our mother's voice or father's voice and the chance to develop that as far as it will go and to be able to communicate like that.

MuST
What advice do you have for a young musician entering a career?

Jake
Be so passionate about it that there's really nothing else. If you do do it, enjoy it, have a wonderful time with it, but don't give up. It's got to be that, no matter if you're waiting tables or doing dishes or doing secretarial work; it's because of this that you're a happy person, and you feel grounded. Because it really is a constant source of joy and inspiration, no matter what else is going on in the world. It belongs to you.

MuST
What would you advise a young artist to avoid?

Jake
The most important thing for a young artist is to remain true to yourself. Don't let someone tell you who you are when you know who you are. Because there's all kinds of people out there that are willing to push advice on you, if they can make a buck off of you. If it isn't in your heart, then stay with what you know is right for you. It's all about being honest.

It really serves a person well in any field in life, and with performers especially, you can tell when it's a dishonest performance or when you hear a piece of music and you think 'it's just not right.' What we do is about the commitment and passion. If you're not honest with yourself, everyone else is going to know too.

MuST
Why would you say music and arts education should be taught in schools?

Jake
It is the work of the soul. I can't imagine my life without music and art in school. I would feel starved. I think it's indefensible that it doesn't exist in a lot of schools. It's shocking to me.