What does danger sound like?  What tempo expresses exhilaration?  What chords and rhythms communicate the essence of a backcountry experience?  What happens when the wildness of trail, river, and mountain intrude on the velvet seats and hushed silences of the concert hall?

Adventurer-Composer Stephen Lias thinks a lot about these questions. In his pursuit of answers, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for Rocky Mountain, Glacier Bay, Denali, Great Sand Dunes, Mount Rainier, and Gates of the Arctic National Parks, and the resulting pieces have been performed in Asia, Europe, Australia, and the USA by groups like the Athens Philharmonia, the Fairbanks Symphony, the Russian String Orchestra, the Ensamble de Trompetas Simón Bolívar, and the Boulder Philharmonic.  He also is the founder and leader of Composing in the Wilderness, a summer program offered in partnership with the National Park Service and Alaska Geographic.
 
In this engaging multimedia presentation, you will explore the many ways that adventure, scenery, fear, history, wildlife and geology can be translated into music.  You’ll hear audio and video excerpts from many pieces both by Lias and others, and you’ll learn how the worlds of Steinway and bushwalking go together like fine coffee and a mountain sunrise.