Washington - By day, Andy Leighton is a mild-mannered organisational development specialist at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, where his portfolio includes running training programs and coaching sessions for the thousands of staffers who keep two of the region's best-known airports running.
But get him away from his desk, and he's that wild and crazy guy making beautiful music at Reagan National Airport.
Well, at least as wild and crazy as you can get on a French horn.
Since 1999, Leighton has been entertaining weary travellers at the airport with an eclectic selection of college fight songs, Mozart concertos, American folk songs and Hollywood soundtracks. And, despite his retirement this week after 25 years with the authority, he will continue the airport concerts as a musician-at-large and volunteer for travellers Aid.
“Music has a tremendous effect on people,” he says. And fortunately for Leighton, virtually all of that is positive.
Leighton, 68, took up the French horn as a high school student in Syracuse (it was either that or the cello, he said). He made the all-city band, played a bit in college and then put the horn aside to pursue other interests.
More than three decades later, he took it up again. Thank (or blame) an ill-timed brag. During a meeting with his son's middle school music teacher, Beth Hayes, he found himself touting his horn skills.
She called his bluff, handed him a loaner horn and told him to call her back when he was ready.
It took six weeks to get back up to speed.
But a partnership was formed. He and Hayes began playing duets at senior centres and other spots around the Washington area. Eventually, Leighton got the nerve to ask his bosses at the MWAA if the duo could play in the terminal at National during the Christmas season.
Hayes and Leighton made their airport debut in 1999. Two years later, Hayes announced that she was moving back to Indiana - and Leighton and his French horn went solo.
He was nervous about playing alone.
“I am far from a professional player,” he says. “But I tell myself, 'I want others to know what a nice instrument the horn is.' “
He survived that first solo outing and has been entertaining travellers three times a week at National ever since. He has played for them all - including World War II veterans from around the country that come to Washington on honour flights, returning soldiers, giddy brides and grooms-to-be, and hordes of squirrelly preteens who come to the nation's capital on school trips.
He has created a music map of the United States to track the people he has met. So far, 47 states are represented, and someday he hopes to make it all 50. He also has a diary in which he records his best memories of playing.
He loves the little kids, who dance and laugh with glee, but the arriving veterans really make his day. He rarely knows what he will play ahead of time, and he happily takes requests. Over the years, he has become an excellent human barometer, able to pick up the mood at the gate on any given day.
If he senses tension, he might break into the Addams Family theme song, which almost always gets the crowd clapping. Should the crowd need calming, perhaps a few bars of Edelweiss. He does, however, close every set with the same song, the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts.
A reminder, he said, that simple really is best.
On a recent weekday afternoon, Leighton finished up a few small tasks in his office at MWAA headquarters before heading over to play at Terminal A. He times his mini concerts to periods when passenger traffic is at its peak, not because it means a bigger audience but because it is a time when folks are likely to be more stressed and in need of a calming influence.
He loads the black case with his horn, a small folding chair and music stand onto a small cart, then heads over to the terminal. Tall and lanky, wearing a straw hat, blue, button-down shirt, bow tie and khakis, the soft-spoken Leighton looks a bit like he just flew in from Main Street USA.
Travellers take little notice as he sets up between Gates 2 and 3, too engrossed in their smartphones and iPads. But as the first few notes begin to echo through the terminal, heads pop up and glance around for the source of the music.
Marcy Ruiz, passing through Washington on her way home to Tampa, is so captivated that she records a few moments with her cellphone.
“It's lovely,” she says. “It really perked me up.”
Nearby, twins Eason and Sledge Taylor, 19 months - on their way to Austin for a family visit with mom, Holly and dad, Lock - dance and shriek in delight.
Leighton cannot play when announcements are being made, so he often finds himself playing snippets. He does not go in with a set list of songs but often tailors his repertoire to the audience. If he spies a University of Michigan sweatshirt, for example, he will break into a rousing rendition of Hail To The Victors, the school's fight song.
Noting that there is a Southwest flight bound for Dallas, he plays Deep In The Heart Of Texas, earning a smattering of applause from the passengers. A traveller wearing a Notre Dame sweatshirt is treated to the Fighting Irish's fight song. Then Linda White approaches him, a giant grin on her face. White, in from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is a fellow French horn player. She and Leighton commiserate.
“I played here in D.C. [District of Columbia] myself in 1963,” she says. “It was for the Cherry Blossom parade.” She put her hand on her chest and sighed. Leighton smiles.
“The more I do this, the more I know I'm meant to,” he says. “Where else in life will a total stranger come up to you and say, 'That's wonderful'?”
Lori Aratani writes about how people live, work and play in the D.C. region for The Post’s Transportation and Development team.
Washington Post