Erik van Heyningen

By Martha Baker, Apprentice Watch Editor

A quick look at Erik Van Heyningen’s Instagram page will tell you that he is a “dog person.”  Indeed, he is the proud dad of a handsome pooch named Max.  He is also an exceptionally talented bass baritone. Mr. Van Heyningen recently completed his time in the Vienna Staatsoper’s young artist program and has joined the company at Oper Frankfurt where he will take on roles in their 2022/23 productions of Tosca, The Magic Flute, Francesca da Rimini, and Don Giovanni.  While singing with Oper Frankfurt, he will share the stage with other Santa Fe Opera alumni Jarrett Porter and Anthony Robin Schneider. (See adjacent profiles.)

His work with the Vienna Staatsoper included portrayals of Donner in Das Rheingold, der Anführer in Henze’s Das verratene Meer, the Second Knight of the Grail in Parsifal, Hobson in Peter Grimes, and Littore/Tribune/Famigliara in The Coronation of Popea. 

A Juilliard School graduate and native of Poway, California, Mr. Van Heyningen was an Apprentice Singer with the Santa Fe Opera in 2017 and 2018, the same years that he sang in the young artist program with Michigan Opera Theater, recently renamed Detroit Opera.   During his time in Santa Fe, he performed the roles of Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly and Archbishop/Ragotski in Candide.  He was also the recipient of the Mackay Family Grant and the Donald Gramm Memorial Award.

Mr. Van Heyningen’s success in singing competitions includes first prize at the Gerda Lissner Leider and Song Competition in 2016 and the Barbara and Stanley Richman Memorial Award at Opera Theater of St. Louis.  Writing about his performance in Salome at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, critic Adam Parker praised Van Heyningen’s “warm, expressive baritone, managing Jokanaan’s soaring, lyrical lines with aplomb.”  

Mr. Van Heyningen is represented worldwide by ARSIS Artist Management.  Here is a LINK to his webpage.