All Conference Sing

Let me make the songs for the people,

Songs for the old and young;

Songs to stir like a battle-cry

Wherever they are sung.

Not for the clashing of sabres,

For carnage nor for strife;

But songs to thrill the hearts of men

With more abundant life.

Let me make the songs for the weary,

Amid life’s fever and fret,

Till hearts shall relax their tension,

And careworn brows forget.

Let me sing for little children,

Before their footsteps stray,

Sweet anthems of love and duty,

To float o’er life’s highway.

I would sing for the poor and aged,

When shadows dim their sight;

Of the bright and restful mansions,

Where there shall be no night.

Our world, so worn and weary,

Needs music, pure and strong,

To hush the jangle and discords

Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

Music to soothe all its sorrow,

Till war and crime shall cease;

And the hearts of men grown tender

Girdle the world with peace.

Tom Peterson is the Associate Conductor and Outreach Coordinator for The Phoenix Chorale, supporting the Chorale's main season concerts while also leading outreach initiatives (MIM Choral Education Night, ACDA State Choral Festival) and additional projects with partners like ASU Gammage Beyond Series and Beth Morrison Projects. 

Tom is also the Director of Music at All Saints' Episcopal, a vibrant and welcoming music program that brings together singers as young as 4th grade with volunteers of every age and some of the finest professionals in the city. For three years, he was the Artistic Director of the Master Chorale of Flagstaff, where he initiated their Big Sing Flagstaff and premiered new choral works by Kira Zeeman Rugen and Melissa Dunphy. He previously worked as producer and conductor with Canyon Records, and taught music theory and history at Phoenix College.

As a composer, Tom is a winner of the Stephen Paulus Emerging Composer Competition, is published with E. C. Schirmer, and can be found on albums by Phoenix Chorale, Solis Camerata, and the Tetra String Quartet. Tom is a graduate of Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and the Royal College of Music in London.