May 9, 2005

Singer, songwriter Piper Leigh to entertain Friday at Arts a la Carte

Piper Leigh, a singer, songwriter and 1999 graduate of Cowley College, is the featured entertainment during Arts a la Carte, Cowley’s noontime concert series, this Friday.

Leigh, an Arkansas City native and the daughter of Doug and Dejon Ewing, will entertain from 12:20-12:50 p.m. Friday at the Calder Bonfy Amphitheatre on Cowley’s main campus in Arkansas City. Admission is free, and audience members are encouraged to bring a sack lunch and a lawn chair. In case of inclement weather or high wind, the concert will be moved to The Jungle inside the Nelson Student Center, also on campus.

Leigh has an eclectic style of music and performance. Predominately self-taught, her instrument of choice is her acoustic, six-string Taylor. She laughs when she compares it to her first guitar, a $30 pawnshop discovery that was so difficult to play, she’s sure it still carries her DNA! Leigh’s music is a tapestry of original work, traditional folk, blues, contemporary gospel and one of her favorites, bluegrass.

Leigh’s venues include playing in Dublin and Dingle, Ireland, with Gerry O’Beirne; at the Tumbleweed Festival in Garden City; and at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. Other venues include The Artichoke in Wichita and The Celtic Fox in Topeka.

Leigh’s early enthusiasm for music was nurtured by performing with her family and through church and school show choirs. She was a member of Contemporary Christian Quartet “One Light,” who recorded with LaVerne Tripp Studios in Nashville. Nick Bruno was the producer. Their CD release concert was played to an 800-seat theatre and a standing-room-only capacity crowd.

Writing and performing music has kept Leigh busy while finishing her bachelor’s degree in communications at Wichita State University.

But the bottom line is that Leigh is an entertainer.

“All I need is my guitar, a microphone and an audience who loves music as much as I do,” she said.