THE fact that this year's winner of the Elgar in Hereford Music Award was not in the Shire Hall to accept his award speaks volumes not just about his commitment to the choral society he directs, but also sums up his self-effacing nature.

"We have rehearsals on Tuesday nights and, with a concert very near, that has first claim," explains Vernon Thurgood, organist at Leominster Priory and conductor of Leominster Choral Society, who has been chosen as the recipient of the fourth Elgar Award.

The award, given annually to an individual or musical organisation deemed to have given outstanding service to music in the county, was announced during a concert played to an appreciative audience by Herefordshire Youth Orchestra.

Under the baton of last year's award winner, Hazel Davis, this talented group of young musicians gave an ambitious programme, starting with Humperdinck's prelude to Hansel and Gretel.

They then accompanied some fine solo playing by Clare Evans in JS Bach's Suite in B Minor for flute and strings before orchestra leader Liam Dunachie's own composition, Ambition, was played.

To set the scene for the awards, there was a rousing version of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No 4 that ensured the May Fair outside the Shire Hall was well and truly blasted away.

Making the award, chairman of the adjudicators, Dr Roy Massey, said: "A shy and modest man, Vernon Thurgood's influence on generations is quite incalculable, as is the effect of his work, his enthusiasm and his expertise."

Vernon Thurgood's musical life began as a choirboy in Walthamstow in East London, and prior to his move to Herefordshire in the mid-1960s he was the organist at Christ Church in Woking, Surrey.

When he first became involved with the Leominster Choral Society, it had fewer than 20 members, and was able to manage only a single concert each year. Now, 40 years later, the number hovers around 80, giving three concerts a year with invited professional soloists and orchestra.

At 76, Mr Thurgood has no apparent intention of slowing down. He continues to work full-time as an architect, working on quinquennial reports for between 30 and 40 churches, as well as residential and commercial projects.

On top of that, his work with the choral society adds a further 10 hours a week.

He does, though, have time for another hobby. "I have a large aviary at home, three fish ponds and a donkey," he explains.

Though not a professional musician, he is a member of the FRCO and has diplomas in choir training.

"The best never is, but ever is to be," he says, encapsulating his commitment to always striving to making the best possible music, with no thought of being rewarded for it and no desire to be singled out for his contribution.

"We're all in it together," he says.

Meanwhile, rehearsals continue for the choral society's concert on June 3, when the Regency Symphonia orchestra joins them to perform The Music Makers by Kodaly, the Creation Canticles by Adrian Lucas and Dvorak's Mass in D, with soloists Gemma Busfield (soprano), Hayley Hunt (contralto), David Manford (tenor) and Roger Langford (baritone).