John Heiss – Composer, Conductor, Flutist and Teacher

Composer, conductor, flutist, and teacher john heiss is an active musician who has performed around the world. He has received commissions and awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Fromm Foundation, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, ASCAP, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Heiss teaches composition, chamber music, flute, music history, and music theory at NEC College. He is an expert on the work of Charles Ives and has been a prominent evangelist for his music.

Early Life and Education

Heiss was born in Darmstadt, Germany. He studied composition with Josef Matthias Hauer in Frankfurt and Vienna.

John Heiss is an active composer, conductor, flutist and teacher. He serves as director of the Contemporary Ensemble at New England Conservatory.

His work has been performed internationally by ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, Da Capo Chamber Players and Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. Heiss has received numerous awards and grants from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Fromm Foundation, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation and Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Heiss has been an avid reader. He was also an avid tennis player and a world traveler. Heiss has four sons and a granddaughter. Heiss was also a beloved husband and father.

Professional Career

John Heiss is a composer, flutist, and teacher. He has been on the faculty of New England Conservatory since 1967 and teaches music theory, flute, chamber music, history of music, and contemporary ensemble.

His works have been performed by Speculum Musicae, Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, Da Capo Chamber Players, Aeolian Chamber Players, Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, and Alea III. Heiss has received commissions and awards from the Fromm Foundation, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, ASCAP, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Heiss is also a published author of articles on contemporary music, which have appeared in Winds Quarterly and Perspectives of New Music. Along with Juilliard faculty Joel Sachs, Heiss has designed and written a book/CD-Rom classical music primer for Blue Marble Music entitled Classical Explorer.

Achievements and Honors

John Heiss earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Lehigh University and a master’s in music from Princeton. He is an active composer, flute player and educator.

Heiss has received numerous honors, including the Edward C. McGavran Award for Teaching and the Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award for Mentorship.

In addition, Heiss has been awarded the John E. Larsh Mentoring Award and the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention Mentoring Award.

Heiss has directed many of NEC’s annual festivals and spearheaded visits by numerous composers, including Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Berio, Carter, Messiaen, Schuller, and Tippett. He also has designed and written a book/CD-Rom classical music primer for Blue Marble Music, entitled Classical Explorer.

Personal Life

John Heiss is a musician, scholar, composer, conductor, professor at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, and a prominent evangelist for the music of Charles Ives. In a video interview, Heiss shares his perspective on the work of this early 20th-century American composer and the impact of his passion for Ives’s music.

Heiss has been on the faculty of New England Conservatory since 1967, teaching composition, chamber music, flute, history and literature of music, music theory, and contemporary ensemble. He has received awards and commissions from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Fromm Foundation, NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, and ASCAP.

Heiss has written many works for flute, most of which feature a refined sense of sensuality that have a unique sense of color and timbre. Heiss also has a longstanding interest in children’s chorus. He recently revisited a piece from 1963 for children’s voices and piano that will be premiered this weekend in a performance by the Boston Children’s Chorus under artistic director Anthony Trecek-King, as well as a subset of Winsor musicians.

Net Worth

John Heiss is an active composer, conductor, flutist and teacher. He currently serves as the Director of the Contemporary Ensemble at New England Conservatory and teaches composition, flute, music history and music theory. He has also served as a faculty member at Columbia University, Barnard College and MIT.

Heiss holds an estimated net worth of $1 million – $4 million. He owns 77,483 shares of Xerox Corporation stock. Heiss has made no insider transactions in Xerox over the past 18 months. His largest trade was exercising 22,728 shares on 1 July 2020 worth over $385,467. Heiss has traded on average 5,817 shares every 36 days since 2020. Heiss is an active investor and holds many different types of stocks. The majority of his holdings are in the business services sector.