Violinist May Robertson has won praise for her ‘lovely gaiety’ (Daily Telegraph) and for her ‘virtuoso fidel playing’ (Lark Reviews). May’s practice is centred around baroque and medieval music, to which she brings devoted historical awareness, and which inspire her distinctive improvisational creativity.
May has worked with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, London Handel Players, Armonico Consort, Charivari Agréable, the Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen, Chelys, and Eboracum Baroque. She has performed with Frans Brüggen, Judy Tarling, Barthold and Sigiswald Kuijken, Margaret Faultless, Richard Egarr, and Jaap ter Linden.
May’s solo performances include Bach’s Fourth Brandenburg Concerto under Sigiswald Kuijken, and the first recording and BBC Radio 3 broadcast of a newly-discovered Vivaldi violin sonata. She co-founded the chamber ensemble Minerva Baroque, which took part in the Brighton Early Music Festival BREMF Live scheme and is now a Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist Ensemble.
May is also a founder member of medieval ensemble Rune, which recently completed its Continuo Foundation-supported inaugural tour. She has performed medieval music for over a decade as a longstanding member of Joglaresa, performing on numerous recordings and in concerts at the Brighton Early Music Festival, the National Centre for Early Music, and the International Medieval Congress. Joglaresa’s founder, the late Belinda Sykes, played an inspirational part in May’s artistic development.
May is an experienced collaborator across disciplines and cultural boundaries. She has co-created theatre music, improvised accompaniments to Sufi songs with the renowned Pakistani folk singer Arieb Azhar, and collaborated with leading specialists of South Asian dance in performances at the Southbank Centre. May recently took part in a children’s opera production by Seaglass Arts, touring to the Elbphilharmonie and Philharmonie Luxembourg, for which she acted as part of a five-person cast and performed a series of Bach cantata arias with the ensemble from memory.
May read English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before studying the baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the modern violin at Trinity Laban (Master of Music with Distinction). She grew up in Cornwall, and lives in London.
