Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

Summer’s
Child
Ben
Heppner
MJ BUELL
Ben Heppner’s unmistakable voice, warm
and relaxed, is instantly familiar to CBC
listeners as the host of Saturday Afternoon
at the Opera, and Backstage with Ben
Heppner, sharing his great love for this music
and a wealth of stories about the musical
lives involved. Heppner first gained national
attention in 1979 as winner of the CBC Talent
Festival and went on to become one of the
world’s most celebrated dramatic tenors,
renowned for heroic performances in a wide
range of the most challenging operatic and
concert repertoire – Wagner in particular.
A Companion of the Order of Canada,
Heppner is the recipient of numerous other
awards and honours as a performer and
recording artist. The Ben Heppner Vocal
Academy, a TDSB elementary school in
Scarborough is named for him, as is the
main street in Dawson Creek BC – Ben
Heppner Way.
Heppner announced his retirement
from singing in 2014, but still performs
occasionally. This summer he will headline
the Lowville Festival on June 9, alongside
the Lowville Festival Choir, and he has
two summer festival engagements with the
Toronto Mass Choir in a gospel program called
“O Happy Day,” concerts which return to the
music of his childhood.
Heppner is the youngest of nine children
born in 1956 to a Mennonite farming family
in Murrayville BC (now part of the city of
Langley).Today he lives in Toronto with his
wife, Karen.
I’ve had a very interesting career as an
opera and concert singer. I’ve travelled extensively
and got to sing with some of the best
singers, conductors and orchestras in the
world. Now I’ve gone to the dark side and
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!
TICKETS: I’m going back to my roots a bit and singing
some gospel music …
“O Happy Day” is a joyous celebration of traditional
and contemporary gospel music featuring the Toronto
Mass Choir and Ben Heppner. This concert is
presented by the Elora Festival on July 14, and Toronto
Summer Music on July 26. MARION ANDERSON
has won a pair of tickets for July 14;
KWAN-WAH INGLIS and
MARY MARSHALL have each won
a pair of tickets for July 26.
WE ARE ALL MUSIC’S CHILDREN
have a career as a broadcaster. I love riding my
Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and spending
time with my five grandkids.
About your childhood home life? My
dad (Ben) worked out in the barn and the
fields and my mom (Kae) held down the fort
with the kids and domestic concerns. I was
what people called an “afterthought.” (after,
they wished they’d thought). I’m five years
younger than my next sibling. It’s complicated
but, by the time I was nine or ten I had
the house all to myself. My family moved to
the Peace River region of BC when I was two
and a half. First we lived in a remote place
called Clayhurst. But after I burned down the
house we relocated to the bustling hamlet of
Doe River. My dad retired from farming when
I was eight years old and we moved to the
metropolis of Dawson Creek. (Trust me it’s
not like the TV show!) I graduated from the
South Peace Senior Secondary School in 1973.
How did music fit into your childhood?
In my childhood home you would have been
given away to another family if you couldn’t
sing. We sang in church, doing the dishes and
even driving in the car. Music was something
that was made not listened to. There was no
record player at home: I heard vinyl LPs only
at other people’s houses, or the library. It was
at the library that I found things to satisfy my
music cravings.
First recollections of making music? When
I was about three my family was asked to sing
in church. I practised with my Mom and my
brother and sisters all week long. When it was
time for my family to sing – I was told to stay
behind in the pew with Dad. I was bummed.
But once the music started, I stood like a tin
soldier on the church pew and belted out the
alto part. I remember a solo with the kids’
RECORDINGS: The recording ship has sailed – but I’m
happy kept busy recording my shows on CBC Music.
My two favourite recordings of mine are: My Secret
Heart and Mahler’s Eighth.
JOAN ZAMORA and EILEEN BEST each win a copy of
My Secret Heart: Songs of the Parlour, Stage and Silver
Screen. (RCA Red Seal 09026635082):
Heppner in 1999 singing with his heart
on his musical sleeve, with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonathan
Tunick, conductor.
CBC
TODAY, WHILE THE BLOSSOMS
STILL CLING TO THE VINE…
There’s no new contest for the summer, when
everyone should be trying to get outside: hearing,
making and sharing live music; making sunny
musical memories that sustain.
Here’s one of mine.
I wasn’t really camp material when I was seven.
But I got better at it over time and learned a lot of
important things because while it wasn’t a music
camp there was lots of singing. I learned a song that
first summer that I still sing, that I sang to my own
kids when they were babies. Here's the last verse:
I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glory
I can’t live on promises winter to spring
Today is my moment and now is my glory
I’ll laugh, and I’ll cry, and I’ll sing …
So here’s the challenge: seize the days and
nights; find music wherever this summer takes you;
and find something you can take away, for keeps.
We’ll have a new contest in September: your
suggestions are welcome.
musicschildren@thewholenote.com
choir at church: I stuffed my hands in my
pockets and refused to look up.
Do you remember seeing an orchestra
for the first time? An opera? I remember
standing in front of the TV and imitating the
conductor. Remember – I grew up in Dawson
Creek – so there were no shows to see. Quite
frankly I detested opera. It wasn’t until I
started to train at the U of T Opera School
that I started to like it.
Do you remember thinking you’d do
something else? After the policeman/fireman
stage I thought of being a minister. That’s
why I went to theological school first. After
a year of theology in Regina I mounted my
campaign to conquer the world from the
University of BC I thought I would be a high
school music teacher.
How did music fit into your own children’s
lives? We sang a lot – like when I was growing
up. I made the kids take piano lessons and
we encouraged any type of music they liked.
Country music is forbidden, however. …
Ben Heppner’s full interview can be read
at thewholenote.com/musicschildren
PETER LANGBALLE and LEONARD ROSMARIN each
win a copy of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major
– Symphony of a Thousand (Decca 4786130): Heppner
in 2013 with Jane Eaglen, Anne Schwanewilms,
Ruth Ziesak (sopranos), Sara Fulgoni, Anna Larsson
(contraltos), Peter Mattei (baritone), Jan-Hendrik
Rootering (bass); Prague Philharmonic
Choir, Netherlands Radio Choir,
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
conducted by Riccardo Chailly.
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