David Pierce, from Hot Springs, a sophomore transfer student in the Sam M. Walton College of Business is one of ten finalists in the first annual Alchemy Songwriting Competition. The contest is the creation of the Blackbird Academy of the Arts, a nonprofit arts education program based in Conway. The competition attracted more than 300 aspiring songwriters from around the world. The finals performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 at Hendrix College's Worsham Performance Hall. Admission is $10, with proceeds going to benefit Blackbird Academy.

Judges for the Alchemy Songwriting Competition include American Idol winner Kris Allen and David Hodges, a Grammy Award winning songwriter formerly with Evanescence.

David Pierce has been writing songs since he was 13. He plays piano and until recently was in a band called Mock Ivey with friends and family members. The band will reunite to perform with him in the competition Saturday night.

Pierce describes his music as being in a “singer/songwriter/indie rock” style. He says he essentially writes for himself, to express something he’s thinking or feeling that he can’t find in any other song. In the finals he and the group will perform a song called “The Midwest”, inspired by his friend’s grandparents, their love story, and the impact they had on him and their family.

Unlike most musicians Pierce says he has “always had a desire to express his creativity in business,” which explains his enrolling in Walton College. And he admits that many successful songwriters might have had better lives if they’d known something about business.

Pierce will be competing in the finals against songwriters from Arkansas, Virginia, New York, Canada and Malta. The Grand Prize is an expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to record the winning song in a studio with award-winning producers Ryan Peterson and Nolan Sipe.

Pierce says he knows the probability of winning is low, but he hopes the competition will help open doors for him as a songwriter.

“The Midwest”, and “The Warrior Complex”, another of Pierce’s songs that made it to the Alchemy semi-finals, can be found on iTunes as part of Mock Ivey’s album Pray We Won't Die. Pierce also expects to post early contest results on his Twitter site @DavidLankPierce.