Emmy Award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg is known for evocative music that celebrates nature and that calls for environmental justice, human rights and world peace.

Heitzeg’s wide-ranging body of works includes compositions for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, ballet and PBS films. His works often include “naturally-found” percussion instruments—stones, driftwood, sea shells, sea glass, seeds, as well as unusual global percussion—Tibetan singing bowls, crystal singing bowls, ocean drums, plowshares, herding bells, and shruti box.

Esteemed conductors, performers and ensembles such as—Ariana Kim, Charles Lazarus, Clara Osowski, Laura Sewell, Marin Alsop, Osmo Vanska, Philip Brunelle, Minnesota Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, VocalEssence—have commissioned, premiered and performed his music.

Five works feature prominently in Heitzeg’s catalog:  his trumpet concerto American Nomad, premiered and recorded by Charles Lazarus, trumpet, and the Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä conducting; Lake Stone Moon (Save the Boundary Waters) for solo violin, stones and driftwood, premiered and performed extensively world-wide by Ariana Kim; O Colored Earth—a piece for children’s choir that is a simple plea for peace—which has received hundreds of performances; Wounded Fields—a lush string elegy dedicated to the victims of war and genocide; and Aqua (Hommage à Jacques Yves Cousteau) for orchestra—a protest piece against the destruction of the oceans; percussionists play an unusual mix of instruments: driftwood, coral, beach stones, nautical bells and gongs, and plastic garbage.

Heitzeg is also known for his earth-centric and visually stunning “ecoscores”—intimate works with inventive musical syntax and design that are an outgrowth of his being influenced by the graphic scores of John Cage, R. Murray Schafer and Erik Stokes. 

Recent works include:  light/see + dark/hear, premiered by Ariana Kim, violin, as part of The Great Northern Festival at Minneapolis Institute of Art; Peace Everywhere for SATB chorus, flute, cello and organ, premiered by Sanctuary Choir; Birdsongs and Bells, premiered by carillonneur Chad Winterfeldt; Wind of No Return, premiered at Liquid Music by Ariana Kim and ensemble;  Green Freedom, premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra, Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting; Green Hope After Black Rain (Symphony for the Survivors of Manzanar Concentration Camp, Hiroshima and Nagasaki), inspired by Toronto-based photographer Katie McCormick’s photos of A-bombed trees, premiered by the Saint Paul Civic Symphony, Jeffrey Stirling conducting.; Lament of the Earth for SATB chorus, SATB soli, children’s choir, piano, percussion and strings (an extensive multi-movement work with texts by Susan Palo Cherwien, Tachibana Hokushi, Winona LaDuke and Terry Tempest Williams), premiered by The National Lutheran Choir, David Cherwien, conducting, Minnesota Boy Choir and Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano.

Upcoming world premieres:  Our House is on Fire (Song for Climate Justice) for SATB chorus and piano, texts by Greta Thunberg/November 23, 2024; Death Suite for Jackie O for mezzo soprano and piano; Clara Osowski, mezzo soprano/January 2, 2025.