Composing in the Wilderness 2025

Offered by the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in partnership with Alaska Geographic, the Denali Education Center, and Denali National Park and Preserve.

DATES: Arrival Sunday, 7/20/25 and departure on 8/1/25 (Friday)
COST: Participant cost is $3,200 per person which includes all housing, transportation and meals.

2025 will see the 14th offering of our “classic” Denali trip. Building on lots of improvements we made in 2024, and led by adventurer-composer Stephen Lias, the two-week experience happens in three “movements”.

I. INSPIRATION

We spend four days exploring in the backcountry of Denali National Park. We travel with scientists and naturalist guides who help interpret this amazing place. We get dirty, stretch out of our comfort zones, and have the time of our lives.

The idea is to provide the most inspiring experience possible, with new information, transformative experiences, new friendships, and spectacular surroundings. For this portion, we partner with Alaska Geographic to provide rustic housing, food, and saftey while in the park. Early in the trip, everyone draws an instrumentation out of a hat so they know what they’ll be composing for.

II. CREATION

We then move to the beautiful campus of the Denali Education Center where our composers can clean up, have food and comfortable housing, and concentrate on their compositions. Everyone has three full days to write chamber pieces inspired by their experience.

The DEC Campus is just 20 minutes from the park entrance, and has a mercantile store, a large lodge with restaurants, nearby hiking trails and plenty of natural beauty all within walking distance. We’ll provide quiet spaces for everyone to work.

III. CULMINATION

Once the works are complete, we will relocate to Fairbanks and meet up with our talented musicians. All the pieces are rehearsed for a few days and then performed. Our musicians are top experts (mostly from New York City), and the performance will be recorded.

While in Fairbanks, we will definitely visit John Luther Adams’ iconic composition installation The Place Where You Go to Listen, and we also find lots of other ways to keep everyone busy.

The eight new pieces are performed first in Fairbanks, and then the next day in the Denali National Park Visitors Center.