My Journey with Music
Radio host, writer, producer and Emmy Award-winning Mary Jo Heath spent 15 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera sharing her enthusiasm for “all things opera.” For six seasons she hosted both the live Saturday matinee broadcasts heard by almost eight million people worldwide each week and those heard on the Met Opera Radio Channel on the SiriusXM Satellite network. She was only the fourth “Voice of the Met” in the history of the house since the broadcasts began in 1931. Prior to that Mary Jo spent nine seasons as the Met’s Senior Radio Producer, leading the broadcasts from behind the scenes. Her voice was heard on the broadcasts narrating features and interviewing artists, and she was seen on the Met’s “Live in HD” series of transmissions into movie theatres around the world interviewing artists. During her time at The Met, she conducted hundreds of interviews with all the world’s leading opera singers, conductors and composers and was part of 1,400+ broadcasts, more than any broadcaster in Met history.
These days Mary Jo shares her expertise on preparing and giving press interviews with young opera singers in programs around the country. She gives seminars regularly at the Met and has recently added sessions at Yale, Wolf Trap, Rice University and with the San Francisco Opera Adler fellows.
A 30+ year veteran of the classical music business, Heath spent a decade with the Philips Classics record label including stints both at their New York offices and at their headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands where she lived for eight years. While at Philips, she held positions as product manager, marketing manager and director of new business development.
Mary Jo hosted programs on several radio stations including WQXR-FM in New York City, WSHU-FM in Fairfield, CT and WXXI-FM in Rochester, NY and has appeared on numerous national radio shows and podcasts discussing opera and classical music including NPR’s “Here and Now.” She has given countless pre-concert and opera talks for local and national companies. She has also contributed her expertise to others with advanced degrees in the humanities sharing her ideas about careers beyond academia to students at Yale and at the Society of Music Theory national convention. Her chapter on “Broadcasting Opera” is part of the “Handbook of Public Music Theory” published by Oxford University Press.
A native of Norman, Oklahoma, Mary Jo graduated from the University of Oklahoma with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and while still a student was the first Music Director of Norman’s Cimarron Circuit Opera Company. She left Oklahoma for Rochester, New York where she earned a Ph.D. in music theory from the Eastman School of Music. She has received Distinguished Alumni Awards from both schools, gave the Commencement Address at Eastman in 2016 and in 2022 was given an Eastman Centenary Award as one of 100 people who exemplified Eastman’s ideals during its first century.