Music Festival 2007 - Gladys Knight

Highlights of the 13th Annual Music Festival for Mental Health

September 8, 2007

The one and only Gladys Knight sings an unforgettable performance.

September 8, 2007 – Rutherford, Napa Valley, Calif. – What a day to remember! Gladys Knight lit up the stage, 72 wineries poured incredible wines, Chefs Rick Moonen and Richard Reddington served beautiful food, and guests ate, drank, and danced to their heart's content. Thanks to the generosity of over 500 donors and guests, the 2007 Music Festival for Mental Health raised over $4 million for research programs around the country, bringing the annual event's 13-year total raised to over $53 million. This total includes over $29 million in "leveraged" grants. This continues the Festival's status as the highest fund raising mental health charity event in the world.

Watch the video highlights from 2007's event

"Many of the early-stage programs the Music Festival supports have been able to make such solid discoveries with their Festival grants that the National Institute for Mental Health has recognized them with larger, sustaining grants which they can use to expand their research," explains Brandon Staglin. So far, as Dr. Ty Cannon announced at this year's event, the Festival's "venture philanthropy" approach has leveraged $7.9 million from the NIMH for UCLA's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, as well as $3.4 million from the NIMH for Dr. Linda Brzustowicz, the Festival's 2005 "Rising Star" grant winner, and $5 million from a private foundation for Dr. Kim Norman's Adolescent Programs at UCSF.

Certainly, this was reason to celebrate!

Drs. Shitij Kapur and Akira Sawa at the symposium

The day began at noon with a fascinating seminar by Dr. Shitij Kapur of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London. He told the story of treatments for psychosis through the ages, from the metal drums medieval patients were whirled around in to cast out demons, to the discovery of the usefulness of chlorpromazine, the first modern antipsychotic, in 1952, through the current use of PET scans to calibrate medication doses. He underscored that although there is much still to learn about how to treat psychosis at its genetic roots, ongoing research is producing new advances every day, with novel therapies already showing up involving different neurotransmission chemicals in the brain, such as glutamate. Scientists and mental health supporters take heart!

Watch Dr. Kapur's seminar: The Story of Psychosis

Dr. Susan Voglmaier of UCSF is in fact researching glutamate transmission with Festival funding, and she explained the basis of her work after Dr. Kapur spoke. Then, an enthusiastic Dr. Akira Sawa of Johns Hopkins University, this year's Staglin Music Festival/NARSAD $250,000 "Rising Star" prize winner, spoke about his studies of schizophrenia etiology using genetically engineered mice.

The reception that followed took the excitement up another notch, with guests enjoying amazing wines from California, Oregon, Washington and Virginia, and the scrumptious hors d'oeuvres of Chef Richard Reddington of Yountville's Redd Restaurant. As guests met and talked as they explored the caves, the energy in the air hummed with happiness and hope.

$650,000 donor Larry Mohr shows off his thank-you gift, a 3-liter bottle of 2003 Staglin Cabernet.

Then it was time for the concert. After comedian Bob Sarlatte welcomed the crowd to the festival tent, Congressman Mike Thompson presented a letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recognizing the Festival's important contributions to the country's mental health efforts, and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi took the mike to thank all the people there for their generosity in supporting mental health research. Shari and Garen Staglin thanked Peter Paul and Jude Blake, who this year pledged their second million dollars to the Festival, Jerry and Karen Callaghan, the second couple to enter the "million dollar donor club." Also introduced were Nancy and Larry Mohr, whose $650,000 pledge will be instrumental in funding schizophrenia research.

Donors Candis and Don Hacker enjoy the concert.

And, then, showtime: "Everything's gonna be all right, 'cause you're gonna spend the afternoon with Gladys Knight," issued from the stage, as the crowd went quiet.

Gladys gave a five-star performance. "You know that the young people in the industry often refer to me as... the Relic," she joked. "...But I like that name." And she went on to show just how much the love in the music of her day was still alive, as was she, electrically, beautifully.

The crowd went wild. As Gladys strolled through the audience, singing "I've Got to Use My Imagination," no one could hold back. Everyone got up and danced.

By the time she sang "Heard it Through the Grapevine," for the first time ever in the vines, everyone was thrilled and filled with the soul of soul music. Although her standing, cheering ovation eventually subsided, the excitement she inspired stayed though the night.

Rick Moonen and the dinner team!

Dinner rounded out a perfect evening. Chef Rick Moonen of RM Seafood restaurant in Las Vegas served a delectable five courses as twilight fell. From the opening crab and apple tart to the final peach clafouti with pistachio ice cream, all accompanied by Staglin library wines, it was a dazzling meal to remember. One guest, Lauren Johannessen, said, "I wasn't a foodie before but I am now!"

As guests walked back to their cars under the stars, they knew they had experienced a day like no other, setting a new record for generosity at $4.04 million.

Learn more about 2008's upcoming Music Festival for Mental Health