Music in the Bush

The comfy leather couches and overstuffed chairs in the Lodge's great-room are full each evening as guests relax with a glass of wine, a cup of hot tea or a lemonade while discussing the day’s experiences. It’s always fun to try to identify the various languages and accents around the dinner tables. Appetites, stoked by adventurous days spent outdoors and a mouthwatering and uniquely Alaskan menu, are hearty. 

This summer we’re offering something even more out of the ordinary than usual in our wilderness oasis. An elegant new mini baby grand piano (flown in by the Otter, of course, like everything else at Ultima Thule) is getting a good workout – or is it Alex getting a good workout? Staff member Alex, majored in jazz piano at Colorado State University. He also plays sax. He’s accompanied by staff member Piper, who, in her ‘other life’ is a professional jazz vocalist. Piper has sung classical music with the Anchorage Opera and now fills the otherwise still mountain air with soulful numbers like "My Funny Valentine" and "Bye, Bye Black Bird."

Ellie sometimes tops off the evening with a seasoned performance of Robert Service’s ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’!