Leigh Lesho

In this life, I am a child of the Sonoran Desert. I was born in Ajo, AZ and my parents moved us to Tucson in 1983 after the New Cornelia copper mine closed. My dad, both of my gradfathers, and some of my uncles worked in the mine, so after it shut down, the obvious moves were either to Tucson or Phoenix to look for work. My dad found a job as an electrical apprentice, started his own company (Fiesta Electric) in 1993, and 23 years later today it's still going strong. My husband, Billy has been an electrical foreman since 2003, and I have been the office manager/bookkeeper for the company since 2004.

From the time I was 6 years old until I was 24, I devoted most of my time to sports. Softball would eventually win my heart because I was a pitcher and everything this skill required of me would set the pace for the rest of my life. I went on to pitch for the University of Nebraska, was named an NCAA All-American in 2000, and our team finished fourth at the Women's College World Series in 2003. One of the most important and memorable moments in my career as a Husker happened during a pitching practice at the end of my Freshman year. I truly met my breath for the very first time, and since that moment, I've honored, nurtured, and studied my relationship with it. My artist self began to truly blossom from this moment forward as my experience became a spiritual journey. After my final season in college, I played professionally for one season in Spain, and one season in Italy before returning to Tucson to play my final season with the Arizona Heat of the National Pro Fastpitch League. These final years of my athletic career were motivated by wanderlust and a search for closure to an experience I held so dear for so many years. I officially hung up my cleats in 2004.

I started offering private pitching lessons to help pay the bills while I decided my next moves in life. Very quickly, I was working with over 20 young pitchers per week (the most I could handle). I focused mostly on integrating yoga psychology and philosophy, and music into their training regimine. After a few years I decided to put it on hold to pursue my Yoga Teacher Certification and a career in music. The one thing not many people knew about me before this time is that I had been singing and studying music in private for as long as I could remember. I started teaching public yoga classes and joining local open mics to see how my original music would be received. My son, Rylan, was born on July 5, 2009 and he immediately became my greatest teacher in this life. I put teaching yoga and playing open mics on hold to be a full-time mom, but the musical journey began to blossom more than ever before as I sang, played, and wrote music with Rylan as my new source of inspiration.

In 2011, I tried playing open mics again but it didn't feel right. I wanted to create my own space to offer my music and teachings, so I opened The Yoga Tree, a studio and "unique boutique." I'm very passionate about music and sharing my life knowledge, but I'm even more passionate about creating community, and this was a way to create a community of good-hearted people around Rylan, and find my authentic voice while I was at it. Six months after the studio was opened, Rylan was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder...which I have A LOT more to say about but would rather do it in a more creative and impactful way;). Anyhow, I decided to continue with the business despite it being a great challenge to our time and energy as a family. It's clear to me now that I was guided to create this community as a support not only to others but also to me and my family during this challenging process.

I don't believe there is such thing as coincidence. Everything is unfolding exactly as it's being wished...conciously or unconsciously...in this life or a previous. In the yoga classes I taught (beginning long before Rylan was born) I focused on teaching mainly about the chakra system and specifically focused on the sacred use of sound, which very much revolves around speech and language. Rylan's greatest challenges are his speech and the relationship between his energy and physical body, so my work in yoga has served me very well to assist him and it has also strengthened my ability to help others in their own process. Through teaching well over 2,000 classes at the Tree and helping Rylan and others find their voice, I finally truly found my own. The work that now lies ahead of me as a an artist, student, teacher, mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend is very clear.

Holding space for an entire community became too much to handle in addition to my personal mission, so I decided to close the doors of The Yoga Tree on May 15, 2015. All of the thoughts, feelings, and energy that I once shared in my yoga classes are now being put into the music that I hope will live far beyond this human self. I've been creating my first full-length album "444" over the past year it's set to release February 2016. This album is a compilation of songs that spans the journey of the auto-biography I've just shared with you. Thank you for reading this far and I hope the music helps you on your journey to the center of all things.



Peace & Love

Leigh Ann