Does the World Say? By Kyle Pederson

Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs, Mpls., MN
https://www.angelicacantanti.org/
Ordway Concert Hall, 5/7/23
Treble Singers, Grades 9 - 12
Conductor: Philip Brown
Accompanist: Jamie Schmidt
Violin: Jennifer Volby
Composer: https://www.kylepederson.com/

LYRICS
Does the world say
that you don't look the right way?
Does the world say
that you're just not enough?

Does the world say
that this isn’t the right spot?
When it wants you there but not here
and tells you all the things you are not.

I've been there, too.
It's hard to shut my ears to the noise.
I don't stand a chance if it's me in this world all alone.
The chatter is deafening, too overwhelming,
hard to find my way home.
So take my hand...don’t let go.

Does the world say
that you don’t think the right things?
Does the world say
that you’re not worth the time?

Does the world laugh
when you fall, when you cry?
Does it turn the other way
every time you walk by?

I'm growing, learning,
loving, becoming.

So take my hand...don’t let go.

About the piece:
Too many times in my own personal experience, I allowed myself to be unduly influenced by the opinions and expectations of others. And as a junior and senior high teacher and coach, I saw this pressure play out daily on my students. And now as a father of young children, I watch as they, too, struggle with expectations the world throws at them. Does the World Say? names a few of these pressures, hoping that by naming them they might hold a bit less power over us. The piece then affirms the importance and power of friendship--and the gift available to us to walk alongside somebody buckling under the weight of expectation to remind them that they are not alone, and to remind them that others do not get to define who they are. - K. Pederson