Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking and The End of the Affair. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would use the fellowship to work on a new project with playwright Terrence McNally, with whom he wrote Dead Man Walking.

Other performing-arts figures who received fellowships include choreographers David Dorfman, Alito Alessi, and Simone Forti, and composers Marilyn Crispell, Don Freunds, Andrew Waggoner, Mark Wingate, Susan Botti, Brian Current, Yotam Haber, and Louis Rosen.

Guggenheim fellowships are awarded to advanced professionals in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts (though they do not support performing activities). According to the Guggenheim Foundation, the awards averaged about $36,000 in 2003.