Ben Heppner and wife Karen captivate audience

Couple launch return of St. Mark’s speaker series

A charming and intimate conversation between renowned Canadian tenor Ben Heppner and
his wife Karen marked the return of the speaker series at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Niagara-
on-the-Lake Monday. 
It was a “new branch of this partnership” for the couple, married for 43 years. Ben retired from
singing in 2014, then moved into broadcasting, hosting both Saturday Afternoon at The Opera
and Backstage for CBC Radio. He retired from the national broadcaster in 2021.
Karen is a semi-retired pastor, now working primarily as an independent consultant. 
St. Mark’s music director James Bourne reached out to Ben in an effort to restart the speaker
series with a lecture, but the Companion of the Order of Canada balked at the idea.
“I’m really bad at lecturing,” he told The Local. “I do really well at answering questions, though.
Someone came up with the idea, I can’t remember who, that maybe Karen could interview me.
She has a real dynamism that I thought would be perfect in this situation. This is really a tryout,
the first time it’s ever happened.”
“It piqued my interest a couple of years ago,” Karen adds. “I was just waiting for the
opportunity. When Ben said Niagara-on-the-Lake contacted him, well, I know he’s a great
storyteller, and he can captivate an audience, but I knew he would say no to just speaking. So I
offered to interview him, and he loved the idea.”
The gathered observers laughed loudly when Karen began the session with a rapid-fire series
of questions, modelled after late-night host Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Questionert. 
They learned that the opera singer, known for working with some of the world’s most lauded
conductors, actually enjoys listening to jazz and choral gospel music at home. They discovered
his favourite movie is The Shawshank Redemption, his favourite smell is the scent of clover in
the fields of Dawson Creek in British Columbia, where he grew up, and he prefers sparkling
water over flat water. 
Though the couple has owned dogs for many years, he admitted he is actually a cat person,
and when Karen asked him to name one thing he owned that he would be willing to give up, he
surprised her by naming his beloved Honda Goldwing motorcycle. 
“I’ve had a motorcycle since 2006,” he said. “I have sent it to Texas and rode it back, I sent it
to Salt Lake City and rode it back along Route 66. I love it. But it’s a big bike, 1,200 pounds
without me on it. It’s getting more difficult to handle it at low speeds. But she never expected me
to say that.”
The self-professed “nine-year overnight success” regaled the audience with stories of his
upbringing in a rural Mennonite family, where music, especially singing, was always part of the
daily routine. He admitted that when he auditioned for the music department at the University of
British Columbia a year after leaving high school, he knew very little about opera and, in fact,
thought that it was quite strange. 
“I was really focused on choral music, actually,” Ben explained. “I didn’t have big designs on a
career. Not until much, much later.”
The couple shared stories of his early days before he had a manager, when their home phone
was equipped with a long extension cord so Karen could take booking requests while preparing

dinner for the family. And Ben said he actually worked with a crew doing home restorations
between 1979, when he won the CBC Talent Festival and 1988, when he prevailed in the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Contest. 
“I needed to make money,” he told the audience. “I was married, and we had three kids. I was
pulling plaster and lath off the walls in living rooms. Really dusty work. We pulled a fridge out of a
house that hadn’t had electricity for two weeks. It was full of food. I decided right then to work so
hard (on my career) that I would never have to do that again.”
Hilarious stories of poorly timed costume fails and the perils of sharing the stage with a horse
and eight Afghan hounds followed. And he spoke of his many brushes with royalty, including
Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, King Harold of Norway and Queen Sylvia of Sweden. 
Karen asked him questions about his pre- and post-show routines, his favourite roles,
conductors, colleagues and opera companies. And the question of faith came up, as well. 
“I always tried to be the same person both on and off the stage,” Ben answered. “I always tried
to live by principles, I could be proud of. I was always a Christ follower, but not a religious nut. I
wasn’t a Christian opera singer. I was an opera singer who was also a Christian.”
The Heppners took questions from the audience at the end of the 90-minute session, during
which he was asked about his command of the various languages in which he was required to
sing (he studied French, German and Italian, but learned just enough Russian and Czech to get
by). 
He spoke of his love for performing recitals in small towns, such as Yorkton and Swift Current,
Saskatchewan, even when he was in demand at La Scala. For someone who holds several
honorary doctorates and has sung some of the most difficult operas from Wagner and Strauss,
it’s one of the many indicators of just how down to earth he truly is.
It was an engaging, informative and entertaining afternoon, and rector’s warden Allan
Magnacca looks forward to the church hosting more in the coming months, though no future
dates or appearances have yet to be announced. 
“The series we did a long time ago was always based on religious themes,” Magnacca said
Monday. “But this is more the way we want to go. We’d like to do about four or five a year, not
during the tourist season, but this time of year when more people have time to attend.”
The Heppners, meanwhile, hold out the possibility the relaxed conversation between them
that debuted at St. Mark’s may find its way to other venues across the country. 
“Nobody left,” laughed the tenor when asked if he thought it went well. “I think maybe in the
future, we can more formalize it, make it a little less off-the-cuff, and more planned. If the
opportunity comes up, I think we will certainly rise to the occasion.”