Mozart find leads charity shop to draft in music expert
After a valuable piece of sheet music by the famous composer was discovered, Oxfam Newbury acquires a music specialist
A NEWBURY charity shop has drafted in a music specialist to examine all donated sheet music in future, after a rare score by Mozart was recently donated to the shop.
Trevor Defferd, a music teacher from Newbury, joined the ranks of volunteers at the Oxfam store in Northbrook Street and will be responsible for pricing sheet music, after a valuable early publication by Mozart was sent to a Reading Oxfam store where it was discovered amongst a box of papers.
Earlier this month the sheet music was put up for auction at Sotheby's in London, where it was valued at £3,000.
The lot had to be withdrawn, however, after someone came forward claiming that they had donated it to the store by mistake.
Oxfam are still investigating the claim, but if they are found to be legitimate, the sheet music will be returned.
Mr Defferd said: “I'm hoping we will get more and more sheet music and other musical items in, which could be a real boost for the Newbury store.
He said that since the former independent Newbury bookshop Invicta closed last year, there had been nowhere to buy good quality sheet music, and that Oxfam could fill that niche.
“You never know what people are going to have in their attics,” he added. “Music gets passed down from generation to generation, so there is every possibility that we will have another find like this.”
Mr Defferd did, however, say that the store was already well stocked with a wide range of sheet music, so anyone looking to buy rather than donate is welcome to drop in: “We have a lot of piano music, but we also have vocal scores like Handel's Messiah. There is also a lot of modern, popular music.”
The manager of the store, Janet Bates, said she was happy to have Mr Defferd on board: “We have had a music specialist for some time now, but his field is CDs and so on, but we've never had anyone who is able to price sheet music as far as I know.”
