For Esther Gray, the goal for every year’s University Lectures Series is to fill Hendricks Chapel.

Gray, the special assistant to the vice chancellor and provost, has been planning the lecture series since 2001. This semester, she has helped create a fall program that will showcase pianist Leon Fleisher, author Cheryl Strayed, columnists Charles Blow and Ross Douthat and environmental journalist Naomi Klein. The series will kick off with Fleisher on Tuesday.

The first lecture will include a short film about Fleisher and a brief performance by the pianist. The evening will continue with a conversation between Fleisher, the audience and moderator Ralph Zito, the chair of the drama department in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“Fleisher is a renowned soloist, conductor and teacher. Any one of those things is an incredible contribution to the arts,” Zito said. “I’m in awe of the fact that he has contributed to all of those things over a long and rich career.”

Fleisher’s parents opted to homeschool him so he could hone his talent. Despite the pianist’s departure from traditional academics, students can still learn many important lessons from Fleisher’s experience, Zito said.

“It is possible to go to school and not learn and it’s possible to learn and not go to school,” Zito said. “Fleisher’s life and art demonstrates one way of learning without going to school. I would challenge students to really take stock of what they are doing here.”

On Oct. 7, Strayed, author of “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” — a novel in which she recounts her 1,100-mile solo hike of discovery — will speak on her experiences, struggles and triumphs.

English professor George Saunders will introduce Strayed. Saunders also got to know Strayed when she was a part of the graduate creative writing program at Syracuse University.

“The book is a beautiful meditation on the power of literature to inspire and transform us,” Saunders said in an email.

Following Strayed, two New York Times columnists, Blow and Douthat, will discuss social inequality on Oct. 13 with Jesse Feitel, a third-year student in the College of Law.

Feitel said in an email that the lecture presents an opportunity to see two accomplished columnists with vastly different opinions share a stage and engage in a thoughtful and respectful conversation about the issue of social inequality.

Since this is Gray’s last year organizing the lectures, the series may look different in years to come. The university created a panel of representatives from each SU college to form an advisory board which will determine future University Lectures.

Gray said the best advice she ever received was to get in contact with Steven Barclay Agency, which “offers a roster of literary figures and public radio journalists” for speaking engagements at places such as institutions of higher education, performing arts centers and corporations, according to the agency’s website.

“Because of their help educating me on the protocol of booking speakers and contracts and the way you treat speakers when they come on campus and how you get a good reputation, our university has become known to have one of the best lecture series,” Gray said.

Gray said it would be too difficult to pinpoint a favorite lecture, but said her favorite part about the University Lecture Series is seeing students engrossed in what the speaker is saying.

“You can hear breath — not even a pin drop — you can hear the breathing,” Gray said. “I love it.”

Published on September 28, 2015 at 10:11 pm

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