"THIS is what I hear all day - the trees are singing my music - or have I sung their's?"

Out of this music, "going round in my head" came Elgar's Oratorio "Caractacus", and the words are to be carved into the stone base of a new statue for Hereford.

Commissioned by the 'Elgar in Hereford Group' to commemorate his arrival in the City in 1904, Clun based sculptor Jemma Pearson, took on forty of the best to win the major commission; the brief, a life-sized statue in bronze of England's greatest composer.

Excited and delighted to have won through, Jemma said: "This is my most demanding and creative challenge yet. I have extensively researched Elgar's working and private lives, his clothes, his mannerisms, his music and, of course, his trade mark bicycle; I will soon be looking for the exact model of the one he pedalled around Hereford composing music in his head."

Mrs Pearson has also found a model for Sir Edward himself in Clun, and will be collecting the right clothing for the pose from a London theatrical costume company.

Born in Liverpool in 1960 she grew up in Galloway in Scotland, renowned for its artistic inspiration. She studied first at Oxford, then Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, before going onto to the City and Guilds of London Art School.

In 1985 she completed her formal training, gaining a Higher Diploma in Sculpture, and capturing the Madame Taussaud's Sculpture Prize, the highest accolade for her graduating year. Her work is featured in exhibitions at home and abroad.

Before marrying an Officer in The Light Infantry, Jemma had a studio in Hackney. For six years after she followed an army life until settling with Richard, now a sales executive with Birmingham Train Manufacturers, Alston - and their two young sons, Edward and George, at her studio on the Shropshire/Wales border.

Tom Pellow from the 'Elgar in Hereford Group' said: " From the forty sculptors drawn from across the UK and Eire, we fee'd four to submit proposals under nom des plumes.

"Jemma impressed us with the quality of her work, and careful research into Elgar the man and the corresponding sensitivity to him shown in her proposal. The committee unanimously agreed with the response from the public exhibition in April last year that the commission should go to her."

"The originality and suitability of her bicycle pose for Hereford is reflective of Elgar's life in and around the city," he added.

The Elgar statue, expected to cost around £40,000, is Jemma Pearson's first for public display.

Jen Green