When Juan José Pastor appears on stage this weekend, he might be grabbing his horn a little more tightly.
Nine days after a devastating theft separated a Yucatan Symphony Orchestra musician from his French horn, the instrument has been returned.
The horn was recovered in time for Friday’s concert, which coincidentally was scheduled to feature Pastor, along with Samuel Rafinesque, who will perform Haydn’s “Concerto for Two Horns.”
Ubaldo Manrique, a music student who plays the trumpet, spotted the stolen French horn in a Progreso pawn shop. The student alerted the police, and soon after, the attorney general’s office contacted Pastor, according to a local radio station.
Pastor had been staying with friends near the Progreso-Telchac highway when a burglar took the valuable horn, among other items.
It ended up in the pawn shop exhibited as a decorative piece. Unlike the student, the shop owner apparently didn’t know what to make of the unusual instrument.
“A thousand thanks in advance to everyone,” Pastor posted on Facebook early today.
At the time of the theft, Juan José Pastor felt “devastated,” but on Tuesday he said he was happy to recover the instrument, not only for economic reasons but also for its sentimental value.
He will be playing that horn on Friday and Sunday with guest conductor Fernando Valcárcel, head of the National Orchestra of Peru.
Authorities are still investigating the crime.
Source: Reporteros Hoy
