Instrument: Flute

After studying at the Royal College of Music with Graham Mayger and Sebastian Bell, Liz joined the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, where she was sub-principal flute and principal piccolo for 13 years until 2000. Since then, she has enjoyed a flourishing freelance career playing flute and often principal piccolo with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She plays with both these orchestras on a regular basis. In recent years Liz has regularly been the guest principal piccolo in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in concerts at home and on tours of Germany, Switzerland, France, Taiwan, Japan and Abu Dhabi.

Liz also plays regularly with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with whom she has played regularly in Birmingham, on tour and in several Prom concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, and in the prestigious Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings. In May 2014 Liz played in the group’s Harrison Birtwistle 80th Birthday concert with Oliver Knussen in which the reviewer mentioned the flute writing being ‘in the excellent hands of Elizabeth May’. (Mark Berry).

Liz is also a very committed teacher, teaching at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff University and Bristol University. She very much enjoys her teaching and has enjoyed much success with students over the years. As well as coaching ensembles and chamber music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Liz has also tutored on the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales courses. Over the years Liz has also been involved in education work in the Birmingham area, as part of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s outreach programme, and was recently involved in a flute day at the Birmingham Conservatoire for aspiring music college applicants. Liz has also done some examining at both the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Welsh College of Music.

Liz also enjoys walking, cycling, sea and lake swimming, gardening and cooking, and lives in North Cardiff with her two daughters.