Dear fellow IDRS members and loyal readers of my bassoon newsletters since Volume I, No. 1, 1969,
I am very sorry to be so behind in my communications this year to have missed an entire issue of The Double Reed. Serious personal problems made it impossible for me to complete all my commitments. The situation is resolved now and I am personally much more comfortable.
This issue of The Double Reed and the 1981 IDRS Journal will bring to a close my communications work for the Society for at least a one-year period. I feel that it is important that I take a rest from editorial work at this time so as to better see to my own personal life and needs. I hope that I will be able to resume my work again in the near future.
Dr. Ronald Klimko, editor of a brilliant survey of bassoon performance and teaching in North America and my dear friend who formed with Kim Laskowski, Charles Holdeman and I the North American French Bassoon Quartet which played at Edinburgh a year ago, has agreed to assume responsibility for editing the bassoon portion of IDRS publications starting with issue No. 2 of The Double Reed, 1981. I know Ron will do a fine job for all of us, and I will support his work in every way that I can. I am sure that many of you will welcome a refreshing change of format or emphasis in the articles. And I will continue to contribute information and articles whenever I can.
Thank you for your many words of thanks and encouragement over the years since 1969. I will always value as the greatest reward of my undertaking the hundreds of new friends I have met through our mutual communications.
Cordially yours,
Gerald E. Corey, Editor