Yesterday I had my second rehearsal of the last movement of the Schubert Quintet with the Salem String Quartet. Before I became president, I played in several Camerata concerts. After I became president because of the failing health of our founders Lydia Woods and Miriam Bednarz, it was harder to get amateur groups to put together a concert; also I shouldn’t use my position to foist myself on our audience. So except for a couple of cello octet concerts, I kept my cello at home. While preparing their concert for this fall the Salem String Quartet found that the program was a little short and needed one more movement. They invited me to play a movement of Schubert in honor of the 20th anniversary (in November) of my election as Camerata president. I happily accepted their invitation! I have enjoyed immensely my rehearsals with them. That quintet is one of the monuments of the chamber music literature; I have played it many times over more than fifty years, but not with musicians as good as these. So come this Sunday to see how well I do in actual performance – at a faster tempo than in any of my previous encounters!
– George Struble