Headrest, a crisis intervention center that has serviced Dartmouth and the Upper Valley community for the past 23 years, will host its largest fund-raiser Thursday.
Highlighting the event is a solo performance by internationally-acclaimed pianist Peter Serkin in Spaulding Auditorium at 8 p.m. His program will consist of J.S. Bach's Italian Concerto, Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, Op.57 and Brahms' variations on a theme by Handel, Op.24.
Prior to the concert, Steven Ledbetter, a music annotater for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a former Dartmouth music professor, will give a lecture on Serkin's work in Alumni Hall at 7 p.m.
Psychology Professor Bath-sheba Freedman, who joined Headrest's advisory council in October 1993, will contribute to the gala event by hosting a buffet reception in Serkin's honor after the concert.
Tickets for the concert cost $25 for the general public and $11.50 for students. The buffet reception costs $100 per person and includes admission to the concert and lecture. Tickets are on sale at the Hopkins Center Box Office.
Proceeds from the concert and reception will all go toward subsidizing Headrest's general operating expenses.
Sandra Zubkoff, a Headrest Board member and the concert committee co-chair, said she hopes the event will raise about $30,000.
Freedman, wife of College President James Freedman, said she became involved with Headrest because of its close ties with the College. When the opportunity came to help the organization, she jumped at the chance.
"The organization has been giving a gift to the community. This is a chance for the community to say thank you," Freedman said.
Headrest started out as a 24-hour crisis hotline. It was founded in 1971 by students and professors at Dartmouth and mental health professionals. For the first two years, it worked out of the basement of College Hall, under the auspices of the Tucker Foundation.
The hotline was originally intended to answer drug-related calls from Dartmouth students but within a couple of years, residents from all over the Upper Valley were calling in, discussing issues such as alcoholism, depression, suicide and poverty.
Headrest then moved off-campus, occupying various sites from 1973 to 1979 and then settling at its current location on Church Street in Lebanon. Besides the 24-hour hotline, which has operated non-stop for the last 23 years, Headrest also provides a nine-bed shelter to temporarily house the homeless, a teen hotline and an alcohol and drug abuse counseling program.
Pianist Serkin comes from a long line of distinguished musicians. His father, Rudolph, was a renowned pianist and teacher, who established the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Serkin's grandfather, Adolf Busch, was a well-known violinist and composer in Austria.
Peter Serkin made his debut at age 12, at both the Marlboro Music Festival and in New York. Since then he has played in international circles with other famous artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Alexander Schneider and Pablo Casals. New York Magazine calls Serkin "one of the supreme Musicians of our time." And the Boston Sunday Globe called Serkin "the most important American pianist."
Despite the international fame, Hanover is a town Serkin knows well. His father gave a benefit concert in Webster Hall in 1983 to raise money for affordable cooperative housing.
Both Serkins were brought to Hanover by Freya Von Moltke, a resident of Norwich, Vt., who has been a friend of the Serkin family since the 1930s.
