THE ART OF COMPOSER
JAKE HEGGIE
JAKE HEGGIE, COMPOSER OF HGO’S WORLD-PREMIERE OPERA, INTELLIGENCE , IN CONVERSATION WITH PATRICK SUMMERS AND JOSHUA WINOGRADE
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 / 5–6:30 PM
DUNCAN RECITAL HALL, ALICE PRATT BROWN HALL SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC AT RICE UNIVERSITY
Presented in partnership with the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University
WORLD PREMIERE
WHO’S WHO
JAKE HEGGIE
Jake Heggie is the American composer of the acclaimed operas Dead Man Walking , Moby-Dick , It’s A Wonderful Life , and Three Decembers , among others. Heggie’s operas —most created with Gene Scheer or the late Terrence McNally—and his nearly 300 art songs, as well as chamber, choral, and orchestral works, have been performed extensively on five continents, championed by some of the world’s most beloved artists. Several of his works made their world premieres at HGO: End of the Affair (2004), Three Decembers (2008), Pieces of 9/11 (2011), I t’s a Wonderful Life (2016), and Songs for Murdered Sisters (2022). HGO performed Dead Man Walking in 2011, with a commercial recording being released on the Virgin Classics label. The work has now received nearly 80 international productions, making it the most-performed American opera of our time. New York’s Metropolitan Opera opens its 202324 season with Dead Man Walking in a bold new production by director Ivo van Hove, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Starting this September, Heggie’s “Fire” ( Elements ) will tour around the world in a co-commissioned project with Joshua Bell and five major orchestras including the NDR Elbphilharmonie, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony. Future premieres include new works for the Miró String Quartet and a one-act opera, Before it All Goes Dark (Scheer), starring baritone Ryan McKinny and mezzo Megan Marino. Heggie has received Grammy nominations for Great Scott (2019) as well as Unexpected Shadows , his album with Jamie Barton (2022). A Guggenheim Fellow, Heggie has served as a mentor for the Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative and is a frequent guest artist at universities, conservatories, and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
PATRICK SUMMERS
Patrick Summers was named Artistic and Music Director of HGO in 2011 after having served as the company’s Music Director since 1998.
Some highlights of his work at HGO include conducting the company’s first-ever complete cycle of Wagner’s Ring and its first performances of the Verdi Requiem ; conducting the first major American production of Smyth’s The Wreckers ; collaborating on the world premieres of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix , André Previn’s Brief Encounter , Christopher Theofanidis’s The Refuge , Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life , The End of the Affair , and Three Decembers , Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree and Prince of Players , Tod Machover’s Resurrection , and Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day ; leading the American premiere of Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger , both at HGO and on tour to the Lincoln Center Festival; and nur -
turing the careers of such artists as Christine Goerke, Ailyn Perez, Joyce DiDonato, Ana María Martínez, Ryan McKinny, Tamara Wilson, Albina Shagimuratova, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Norman Reinhardt, Jamie Barton, and Dimitri Pittas. Maestro Summers has taken the podium for Opera Australia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera. He has enjoyed a long association with San Francisco Opera (SFO) and was honored in 2015 with the San Francisco Opera Medal. His work with SFO includes conducting Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick , which was recorded and telecast on PBS’s Great Performances . In 2017, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Indiana University. He was recently named Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Theater and VocalARTS alongside Renée Fleming. During HGO’s 2023-24 season, he conducts Falstaff and Madame Butterfly . During HGO’s 2022-23 season, Summers conducted The Wreckers and The Marriage of Figaro ; and in 2021-22 he conducted The Snowy Day , Dialogues of the Carmelites , and Romeo and Juliet . Other recent engagements include Dead Man Walking at the Israeli Opera.
JOSHUA WINOGRADE
Joshua Winograde serves as Professor of Opera, Director of Opera Studies, and Chair of Opera for Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He previously served as Senior Director of Artistic Programs at LA Opera, a position central to mainstage casting and artistic administration for the primary subscription season, the LAO Off Grand series of events in alternate venues, and On Now digital and streaming programming. In addition to creating and directing LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, he oversaw many elements of LA Opera’s Artist in Residency program. He served as LA Opera’s Senior Director of Artistic Planning from 2007-17, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Director of the National Council Auditions (The Met Competition) and Associate Artistic Administrator, responsible for casting, during the 2017-18 season. Winograde is currently the Casting Consultant for the American Symphony Orchestra, Bard SummerScape and Music Festival, and The Orchestra Now (TON). He is on the board of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, where he is the head juror for their renowned annual awards and grants. Previously, he created and ran the Opera Studio at Wolf Trap Opera, and was the Assistant Administrative Director of The Juilliard School Department of Vocal Arts, also his alma mater. Winograde has served on many competition juries including the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Awards, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals, the Innsbruck Alte Musik Festival Cesti Competition, the Galina Vishnevskaya International Competition in Moscow, the International Singers Fair in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, among many others. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and has sung professionally with HGO, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and American Symphony Orchestra, among many others.