He began his Indian music studies in Wesleyan courses taught by Robert E. Brown and T. Ranganathan, and was quickly captured by the subtle beauty of the art form.
Within a short period of time he performed to great acclaim at the Tyagaraja Aradhana, an important music festival in South India.
He continued to perform Carnatic music, recorded several albums, and due to his widely recognized sensitivity was honored with the sobriquet "Bhagavatar" (scholarly musician).
He stood at the gate and sang in chaste Kannada the Vyasatirtha composition ‘Krishna nee begane baro’, an action which echoed Kanaka Dasa's protest in the 16th century.
[4] He is survived by his wife, Rhea Kyvele Padis; two sons, Luke and Nicholas, an ethnomusicologist[5] at Sarah Lawrence College, and a brother, Hayden, a jazz pianist known professionally as Eddie Higgins.
Composer Terry Riley has credited a South Indian singing demonstration by Jon Higgins as an influence on his piece A Rainbow in Curved Air from 1969.