Toppenish High School concert to feature original composition by former student

Next Monday’s (Dec. 8 ) Toppenish High School winter choir concert won’t be just your standard teen vocal performance of tried-and-true tunes. It features the original composition “Aim for Identity” by Yakima Valley Community College student (and Toppenish High School grad) Michael David Bushman.

The piece was commissioned by the Toppenish High School Choir Program and is designed to be performed by community members along with the school’s choirs.

And that’s what will happen at Monday’s concert. “Aim for Identity” also featues guest soloist Tom Blackeagle (also a Toppenish graduate). The concert is at 6 p.m. in the Toppenish High School gym, 141 Ward Road. Admission is free.

Here are the lyrics if you also want to sing a-long:

Days in waiting, days preparing,
Days spent weaving first stages of life.
The endless cycle of change emerges,
And we breath beginning the test of time.

Awake with posture of a modest perspective.
Awake embracing all beings that live.
Awake with this inherited moral vision.
Awake with a charismatic aura that gives.

Stand up to see the old ways have been weakened.
Stand up together to begin the healing.
Stand up and mend broken spiritual links,
Ensuring these fragile traditions extend.

A respectful distance from the old to the new ways
Requires hard labor to adjust to the change.