Our House Is On Fire – Steve Heitzeg

Composer: Steve Heitzeg

Text: Greta Thunberg

Instrumentation: SATB Chorus and Piano (optional: guitar and percussion)

Duration: Approx. 6 minutes

Date Written: 2023

Premiered by: SATB Choir/TBA, Conducted by Philip Brunelle

Commissioned by: the Minnesota Commissioning Club

Additional Information: 

Texts by Greta Thunberg:

“We must change almost everything in our current societies.
The bigger your carbon footprint—the bigger your moral duty.
The bigger your platform—the bigger your responsibility.
Adults keep saying: “We owe it to young people to give them hope.” But I don’t want your hope.
I don’t want you to be hopeful.
I want you to panic.
I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.
I want you to act as you would in a crisis.
I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”

Excerpt from Our House Is On Fire speech, World Economic Forum, Davos, January 25, 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Greta Thunberg.
Used by permission of JP/Politikens Hus, Copenhagen

“Hope is not passive. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people. And we the people—we want a safe future, we want real climate action and we want climate justice.”

Excerpt from #youth4climate speech at pre-COP26 (the Youth4Climate conference) InMilan,September28,2021 Copyright©2021byGretaThunberg.
Copyright © 2023 by Steve Heitzeg.

All royalties from the sale of scores will be donated to the Greta Thunberg Foundation www.solarsister.org