Are You Listening?
Are You Listening?
Kyle Pederson (2026)
Voicing: SSA
Accompaniment: piano and optional soprano sax or clarinet
Text: Kyle Pederson
Commissioned by: 2025 ACDA Soprano-Alto Choirs Commission Consortium of the American Choral Directors Association, Erin E Plisco, National Repertoire & Resources Chair for Soprano-Alto Choirs
Give me rivers--plenty, pure, and clean
Give me air that I can breathe deep
Give me wildlife running free
And an earth that is not hurting
Why are you not listening to me?
Give me schools without the lockdown drill
no bully or blade, no child afraid
there's a way, but is there the will?
A place where wisdom and truth run free
where certainty gives way to curiosity
Why are you not listening to me?
Give me a world where the talk is true and kind
A world where words do not demonize
where people live out that rarest rule
and do unto those what you'd have done to you
Let's put our mind to it,
work our way through it,
there's something we all can do
Bread on every table,
a roof over every head
hope has come--for everyone
there's a peace that knows no end
And there’s forgiveness flowing free
we forget to hate, we let love create,
and foes are friends again
Why are you not listening to me?
COMPOSER NOTE:
This piece began as a response to the divisions we deepen, the suffering we often ignore, and the small acts of care that resonate with me. This piece is rooted in hope--for clean air and children who are safe, for honest words, and for the courage to meet one another with compassion. These hopes don't belong to one political party or generation—they belong to all of us. My intention isn't to scold or persuade, but to invite reflection, and to encourage us to listen more deeply to one another and imagine a better way forward.
