Six years ago a music teacher suggested to Alison Houlbrooke that 'she'd be a good person to stand up and wave her arms around' in front of a choir.

With most of her 45 years having been taken up with music, in one way or another, it is no surprise that she took to the suggestion as did the proverbial duck to water.

It is clear from meeting her that communication is very much an expression from within and she gesticulates with her hands, arms and entire upper body as she talks.

Accused of dancing as she conducts, she muses and confesses to 'maybe jiggling, but not dancing'.

Dancing would not be the 'done thing'.

And that would be the antithesis of this colourful musician.

A musician whose most recent achievement has come in the call to conduct Hereford's prestigious Police Male Voice Choir.

Since taking up the post in November, she describes working with the choir as 'absolutely fantastic'.

Having heard about the vacancy, she knew as soon as she was approached that it was too good an opportunity to let go. Having done lots of work with children, and been a teacher at Aylestone School for six years, she was keen to work with adults.

The Choir's first female conductor in its 45-year history, it's a challenge that must feel more onerous than most.

"They really respond to me," she explains. "As a woman or as a conductor I don't know."

What sounds clearly is that the union between the seventy or so male voices of what has been, up 'til now, a very traditional male voice choir and this dynamic, talented woman is harmonious.

Formed in 1957 by a handful of serving police officers and members of the Special Constabulary the choir has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities over the years. Drawing from Herefordshire and Worcester it has grown in force and prestige.

Game for a laugh

The warm-up vocal techniques that Alison is using with the choir during its weekly two-hour rehearsal will be quite unlike those that they will be used to due, mainly, to her specialist vocal and aural work in education.

"I believe in using the voice to teach, in singing your instruction."

And luckily the Police Choir has been 'game for a laugh' in responding to her, very contemporary, approach.

Her curriculum vitae includes several years' leading the County Youth Orchestra in the 70s, before being sponsored by Herefordshire Council ('when there was still the money for that kind of thing') to study at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Becoming a wife and mother created a temporary hiatus in her professional career, but she still found time to study for an Open University degree in humanities.

Singing with Hereford Choral Society and Malvern Festival Chorus, and playing the violin with Hereford String Orchestra kept her ear in tune.

Describing herself as a 'late developer' she then returned to college to study for a PGCE.

Now a free-lance music teacher, Alison manages to find time for most of the choral work going on in the county (The Voice Squad, Music for Youth, Rat-a-Tat, The Voice Foundation) as well as singing herself with Hereford Chamber Choir and the national choir group, Sine Nomine.

Life on the farm with husband and three sons is where she is likely to spend much of her leisure time, but it's hard to imagine it amounts to much.

Given the opportunity her long-term aim is to extend the repertoire of Hereford Police Choir and to improve its sound through technical work.

Beyond those sights is a dream to create a city schools' choir, which she would love to see happen one day.

For now she just wants to do the job in hand to the best of her ability.

"I'd like to think it is a long-term partnership," she says, "because they're so lovely."