Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

This Weekend: Staglins' 11th Music & Wine NAPA festival to battle schizophrenia

Music and Wine to Support Schizophrenia Research

For everyone in the San Francisco Bay Area - this is a great opportunity to participate in some fun and educational activities up in the Napa Valley, this Saturday, September 10th (Details, at link at bottom of page):

Jazz singer Roberta Flack headlines Saturday's 11th annual Music Festival for Mental Health at Staglin Family Vineyard in Rutherford.

Flack is bringing 11 other musicians to the event, which in its first decade has raised more than $26 million for mental health charities and research.

During an afternoon ceremony, Dr. Linda Brzustowicz of Rutgers University will be presented a $250,000 award for her research in psychiatric genetics and schizophrenia.

Brzustowicz, 44, is considered a pioneer in the field.

"The answers that Dr. Brzustowicz and other neuroscience researchers are finding today will help millions of people around the world," said Shari and Garen Staglin, who established the festival in 1995.

Brzustowicz is currently focusing her research on developing a new method of analyzing genetic data from families with a history of schizophrenia, as well as studying brain tissue. The award will fund her research.

"This is a global cause," said Shari Staglin, who along with her husband, Garen, will host the event. "It's a celebration of life and hope."

"We're passionate about it," added Garen Staglin.

It's also personal. The couple started the fund-raiser after a family member was diagnosed as schizophrenic at age 18.

The couple discussed plans for the concert last week on the porch of their Rutherford home, which served as a set for much of the 1998 Disney movie "The Parent Trap."

The Staglins hope Dr. Daniel Weinberger of the National Institute of Mental Health will be able to present the noontime address. The director of the genes, cognition, and psychosis program of the intramural research program at NIMH is on standby alert for possible duty in storm-ravaged New Orleans. He planned to lecture in the event's concert tent on brain science.

Scientists from nearly two dozen cities around the world plan to attend a follow-up scientific seminar Monday and Tuesday at Villagio Inn in Yountville. It will be the fourth such meeting of the minds, at which research on mental diseases will be shared.

More Information: Staglin Family Vinyard - Music Festival For Mental Health

Source: Napa News - Staglin Event Coverage