A couple of weeks ago our press team were busy getting papers and the Today programme interested in our story around Mozart Piano Concerto No.23. The press always like a picture to go with a story, so we hunted high and low for a picture of Barbara Ployer – Mozart’s pupil, who the concerto was most likely written for. We searched. And searched. And searched. But came up with nothing. It started to look hopeless. However Natasha, our communications intern, came to the rescue with some highly advanced photoshop skills and, using photographs of OAE staff members Katy Bell (Press Manager) and William Norris (Communications Director) as a starting point, and also piecing together documentary and historical evidence pointing to what Barbara Ployer looked like, she presented to us two startlingly lifelike images. These advanced photomontages are probably the closest we can get today to knowing what Mozart’s pupil looked like.

And, slightly more seriously, we did in the end source a sketch of Barbara Ployer, see it with the Guardian press story here.