Piedmont concert to benefit kids mental health group in Richmond
By Lou Fancher
Celebration, sorrow, music and mental health services will come together Saturday in a special benefit concert at Piedmont Center for the Arts. Marking the 150th anniversary of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s birth and honoring National Depression Awareness Month, the evening’s proceeds will support the Richmond-based Early Childhood Mental Health Program. The grassroots organization was started in 1974 as the Comprehensive Therapeutic Nursery School and is led by parents, educators, social workers and active area community members. Offering support for infants and very young children and their families facing adversity and trauma — conditions that make reaching the necessary behavioral and developmental benchmarks to enter kindergarten difficult for children — the programs offer services to bolster family health, relationships, healing and resilience. The ECMHP has previously received substantial government grants, serves about 500 families annually and provides development opportunities and training for professionals working in mental health and early education. Saturday’s planned performance in Piedmont’s intimate theater of Rachmaninoff’s “Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19″ and a presentation by retired psychiatrist Dr. Hunter Harris came about due to a fortuitous intersection of factors. Harris says that in 2004, anticipating his retirement after 18 years as a general psychiatrist with Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland facility, he investigated volunteer opportunities at ECMHP to possibly offer his services as a clinician. He said finding a position on the board of directors instead would let him best serve and bring expertise to the organization, which he found rewarding. “I could stand up for the best interests of the organization, which can get lost in the struggle for funding efforts,” Harris said. “It was things like the amount of time it takes for a clinician to really look into a case. Too much pressure on their time might outweigh their work for the agency, if compromised. “This was vital because we offer mental health services that significantly impact children and families. These are good-quality interventions that create more cohesive family units and keep children in school. The ECMHP offers a teaching facility to people in the field, in addition to assisting children whose lives are often uncontrolled and unmanageable. I recently stepped off the board after 19 years simply to free up my time and make room for the next generation to be involved.” Before the pandemic, Harris had discussed holding a performance to benefit the agency with a good friend, pianist Gwendolyn Mok, a coordinator of keyboard studies at San Jose State University and frequent professional performer with Bay Area chamber ensembles and orchestras. “Gwendolyn wanted to offer her skills, and that performance didn’t happen, but then it turns out this is the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth. There’s a celebratory energy worldwide to remind people of his gifts to the world. “She approached me and said she thought a program that included Rachmaninoff’s struggles with depression might be interesting to set up during Depression Awareness Month. I was the liaison and was in touch with members of the board and let them know Gwendolyn was interested in providing this generous program.” Mok will be joined at the concert by cellist William Chang. Rachmaninoff’s four-movement sonata was completed in 1901 and dedicated to his friend, Russian cellist Anatoliy Brandukov, who performed the challenging work along with the composer at the keyboard. Written several years after the cataclysmic failure of the premiere of Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 1,” Rachmaninoff had found writing music impossible and had undergone hypnotherapy to overcome depression, or, as it turned out, live with depression despite it. The sonata turned out to be his last chamber work and was a tremendous success. Even so, Rachmaninoff continued to live with depression throughout his life. “I hadn’t really been a Rachmaninoff aficionado,” Harris admits, “but being involved has led to my listening more thoughtfully to his music. I learned his depression had a chronic element and was built into his way of living in the world. He lived as if his life was a glass half-empty. As happens, that grows out of temperament, genetics and life events. I’ve reviewed his life and can see the way adverse experiences took their toll on him. It created a lack of resilience and a kind of high demand, high rigidity.” An important and major component of the talk Harris will give is the human being behind any diagnosis of a mental health disorder. “Rachmaninoff had a major mental health condition, but he was still a person. It in no way meant he did not have a life. He sought and benefited from treatment and was better off for getting help. Part of depression awareness is to remind people that help is available, that it makes sense to reach out to get assistance. “In part, awareness will destigmatize mental health issues as a failure of character. Instead, we can see it as a combination of genetics and life circumstances. That leads to compassion, instead of criticism and rebuke.” Harris says the environment today seems harsh, with less compassion than is needed concerning mental health. He says anxiety is the condition most prevalent in society, especially after the last few years, but that expert research shows depression effects 40 million people in America. “There are reports I’ve seen that one in 10 Americans are taking anti-depressant medication.” While not taking the place of therapy or appropriate medications, music can be a powerful agent to convey meaning and embrace the spiritual realities, sadness and complexity of living in the world, Harris says. Celebrating a brilliant composer’s work while understanding his life circumstances more broadly is a lovely inroad to raising a glass to artistry and lifting up organizations such as ECMHP that seek to support the community, he adds. “I hope in my talk to also include some light humor, such as that Rachmaninoff was enormously tall, 6-foot-3 or so, and had large hands. But people whose hands are considerably smaller can play and enjoy his music. This program is a celebration of life, with all its complexities.” |