Singaporean violist May Loh previously pursued a Master’s degree in Orchestra Playing at the Orchestra Centre of North Rhine Westphalia (Orchesterzentrum NRW) in collaboration with the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf in Germany. Prior to that, she had obtained a Master of Music in Viola Performance from the Robert Schumann Hochschule, where she had studied with Niklas Schwarz, former principal violist of the Essener Philharmoniker. May was also a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music (with Honours) in Viola Performance under former T’ang Quartet violist Lionel Tan. Throughout her studies, May has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Li Siong Tay Postgraduate Scholarship, Trailblazer Foundation Grant, as well as a full scholarship awarded by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. 

 

During her time in Germany, May was a member of the Detmolder Kammerorchester and had also freelanced with the Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra and Euregio Chamber Orchestra. She is now a freelance musician with many orchestras in Singapore such as the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra and re:Sound Collective amongst many others. May was also previously selected as an academist in the Korean National Symphony Orchestra (South Korea) and an intern at re:Sound Collective, and has played under the baton of many established conductors such as Masaaki Suzuki, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Rüdiger Bohn, Volker Hartung, Chung Chi-Yong, Lim Yau and Darrell Ang. Her orchestra journey has brought her to the stages of many renowned concert venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Esplanade Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Centre and Hong Kong City Hall, amongst many others.

 

In addition, May has served as principal violist of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, China-ASEAN Music Week Youth Orchestra, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra and guest principal at the National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in music festivals around the world such as the International Summer Music Academy Mozarteum (Austria) and the Allegro Vivo Summer Academy (Austria) and Young Euro Classic (Germany), and has had masterclasses and lessons with many renowned violists including Thomas Riebl, Thomas Selditz, Roland Glassl, William Coleman, Garfield Jackson and John Crockatt.

 

On top of classical music performances, May has been involved in projects such as the 2017 Kingdom Hearts World Tour, Final Fantasy Distant Worlds (conducted by Arnie Roth), The Music of Hans Zimmer vs John Williams (conducted by Anthony Inglis), and has performed with renowned musicians such as Richard Clayderman and DJs such as Kygo and KoFlow. She has also made appearances in local television series such as My Guardian Angels (produced by Mediacorp Singapore). While based in Germany, May has also worked with the Singapore Embassy in Berlin and Singapore Global Network to perform Singaporean music overseas on numerous occasions.

 

As an educator, May has been providing private lessons on the violin and viola for more than 10 years. Her students includes many who are learning for leisure, school music programmes and orchestras. As a former Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Examinations High Scorer awardee, May’s familiarity with the examinations and effective teaching methods have helped many of her students go on to achieve successful results in their own examinations. 

 

May is also a strings tutor at the ACS (International), and has taught as a substitute violin/viola instructor for the string ensembles at Raffles Institution, St Margaret’s Secondary School and Methodist Girls’ School (Primary). She was also previously involved in providing music lessons for special need students and was also a tutor for a small ensemble class catered for them. Her job scope had included arranging scores, providing individual guidance and honing the ensemble skills of the students to better prepare them for orchestra playing.