Heppner: Reflecting On His Vocal Crisis

Tenor Ben Heppner reflects on the vocal crisis two years ago that kept him off the stage for eight months. “Those performances are seared on my memory. I had a panic attack. It was like my heart was beating 150 beats a minute. I was sweating in places I never knew I could sweat. Every inch of my body was running in sweat. I was thinking, ‘What are you doing here? You’ve never sung this publicly before.’ And when I sang, this squeaky voice came out… and I thought I was going to die. Somehow I got through it, but it was not my finest hour.”