Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series Presents: Sebastian Junger
Sebastian Junger is the internationally acclaimed, best- selling author of WAR, The Perfect Storm, A Death in Belmont, and Fire. He is also the acclaimed director of the documentary films Restrepo and Korengal. As a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and as a contributor to ABC News, he has covered major international news stories and has been awarded the National Magazine Award and a SAIS Novartis Prize for Journalism.
Junger’s latest book, In My Time Of Dying, is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery. For years as an award- winning war reporter, Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day and was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger — a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical — to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die.
As an award- winning journalist reporting on the war from the soldiers’ perspective, Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington spent weeks at a time at a remote outpost that saw more combat than almost anywhere else in the country. This resulted in his best- seller WAR, as well as Restrepo. Hetherington was later killed while covering the war in Libya. Following his untimely death, Junger returned to Park City, Utah, to debut the film, Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, with high commendations at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Junger created this film in honor of Hetherington’s original vision to capture stories that would broaden viewers’ perceptions of war and serve as a remembrance for his humanity and courage. Realizing the dangerous risks frequently taken by freelance photographers and reporters, Junger was motivated to start Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC), an organization that provides medical training for journalists in war zones, to commemorate the death of the acclaimed photographer. “Tim wanted to change the world,” Junger recalls, “But he also wanted the world to change him” (New York Times). ”
Junger became a fixture in the international media when, as a first- time author, he commanded the New York Times best-seller list for more than three years with The Perfect Storm, which became a major motion picture starring George Clooney.
His reporting on Afghanistan in 2000, profiling Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, became the subject of the National Geographic documentary Into the Forbidden Zone. In 2001, his expertise and experience reporting in Afghanistan led him to cover the war as a special correspondent for ABC News and Vanity Fair. His work has also been published in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Men’s Journal. He has reported on the LURD besiegement of Monrovia in Liberia, human rights abuses in Sierra Leone, war crimes in Kosovo, the peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, wildfire in the American West, guerilla war in Afghanistan, and hostage-taking in Kashmir. He has worked as a freelance radio correspondent during the war in Bosnia.
Sarah Frey is the founder and CEO of Frey Farms, a Certified Woman- Owned Agribusiness headquartered in southern Illinois. Frey Farms is a leading US grower, shipper and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables. Sarah also oversees the diverse operations of the Frey family of companies to include land acquisition, regenerative agriculture initiatives, raw ingredient manufacturing and a full-scale beverage business. The Sarah’s Homegrown brand of produce and beverages are distributed across the US from over 200 cold-chain distribution centers, in both retail grocery and foodservice.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world.
Spread the Warmth: Empowering the Homeless One Coat (and One Job) at a Time
André Watts was only 16 when Leonard Bernstein chose him to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic in one of the orchestra’s Young People's Concerts. More than half a century later, Watts remains one of America’s most distinguished and celebrated performing artists. He is a regular guest at major summer music festivals, and has appeared with major United States orchestras and symphonies. Watts’s international engagements have included appearances in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, and Spain. His 1976 New York recital for Live from Lincoln Center was the first full length recital broadcast in the history of television. Watts’s performance at the 38th Casals Festival in Puerto Rico was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming. His extensive discography includes recordings of works by Gershwin, Chopin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky; recital CD’s of works by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Chopin; and recordings featuring the concertos of Liszt, MacDowell, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Saens. Watts received a 2011 National Medal of Arts, and in 2006, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl of Fame to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut. He is the recipient of the 1988 Avery Fisher Prize. Watts was appointed to the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2004 and in 2017 was named a Distinguished Professor, the highest academic rank the university bestows upon its faculty.
NASA astronaut Eileen Collins reveals encouraging perspective and insight on the leadership skills needed to break barriers and become a successful pioneer in your field.
Ed Davis is the Former Police Commissioner of the Boston Police Department and current President and CEO of the business strategy and security agency, Edward Davis LLC. Commissioner Davis was at the forefront of the emergency response to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing and the arrests that followed. His experience during the Boston Marathon bombings will be depicted in the upcoming feature film, Patriots Day, starring John Goodman as Commissioner Davis, scheduled to release January 2017.
The Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series proudly presents Doc Severinsen and the UE Jazz Ensemble.