#APOpictures shortlisted for Alt Reading’s Event of the Year award

We’re delighted to have been shortlisted in the Event of the Year category for the Alt Reading awards. Alt Reading is a not-for-profit online magazine which aims to show all the best that Reading has to offer. It’s particularly supportive of the arts and is highly regarded in the Reading arts community. It’s wonderful to get recognition for #APOpictures, especially in the company of some fantastic nominees and our categories and others.

January 2016 – Pictures at our Exhibition concert is a great success

An audience well in excess of 400 enjoyed our concert on January 23rd. Geoffrey Silver’s spine-tinglingly emotional performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto drew tears from many audience members (and a few orchestra members, too!), whilst Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at at Exhibition’ rocked the stage and almost took the roof off for a tub-thumping conclusion. The biggest ovation, however, was for our wonderful young composers award winners, whose ‘Pictures at APO’s Exhibition’ were given their world premiere.

That performance was recorded and is now available on our Pictures at Our Exhibition microsite (www.picturesatourexhibition.org.uk). We are actively seeking local schools and community organisations who are interested in doing some follow up work with the orchestra on this fantastic project, which was supported by Reading arts organisations jelly and Creative People, as well as by a generous grant from the Reading Cultural Partnership, as part of the Reading 2016 Year of Culture.