Ben Heppner: the Murrayville-born tenor

This one’s a short claim but a good one. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives Ben Heppner’s birthplace as Murrayville in the Township of Langley. His farming family moved north to Dawson Creek, where he grew up and finished high school in 1973, so Dawson Creek is the town that renamed its main street “Ben Heppner Way” in 1997. But the story starts here.

From Dawson Creek he went to UBC to study voice, won the CBC Talent Festival in 1979, and made his opera debut with Vancouver Opera in 1981. After the Canadian Opera Company’s young artists’ ensemble, he moved into the heavier German repertoire in 1987, and things moved quickly:

• 1988. Wins the Birgit Nilsson Prize at the Metropolitan Opera auditions, and makes his US debut in Chicago.
• 1989. European debut as Lohengrin in Stockholm.
• 1991. Metropolitan Opera debut in Idomeneo, stepping in for Luciano Pavarotti.
• 1990s and 2000s. Becomes known for Tristan, Lohengrin, Walther in Die Meistersinger, Florestan and Britten’s Peter Grimes.

The awards list is long. The Encyclopedia records Junos for best classical album in 1996 and 2000, a Grammy for best opera recording in 1998, a Gramophone record of the year and an International Emmy in 1999, and the National Arts Centre Award in 1995. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2008, and Wikipedia adds a Governor General’s lifetime achievement award in 2016.

He retired from singing in 2014 and became a familiar voice on CBC Radio, hosting Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and Backstage with Ben Heppner until he retired from broadcasting in 2021.

We have no licensed photo of him, so the picture is of heritage houses in Murrayville. More Langley musicians are on musicians from Langley.