Born in Calgary, raised in Vancouver, May grew up on a heavy dose of music from her father's CD and LP collection. From Coltrane to Leonard Cohen, May was very inspired by everything she listened to, and still is. May started playing classical piano at the age of 7, took up clarinet at the age of 10 and bass clarinet at the age of 11. She recorded her first vocal jazz demo at the age of 15 and formed her own quartet the following year. Hailed as 'The Next Ella Fitzgerald' in the Vancouver Sun (2001), May attributes her sound to the original queens of Jazz (Ella, Sarah and Billie) and also to instrumentalists such as Chet Baker, Coltrane and Charlie Parker. She has studied with Frank Ludwig (from the rock band 'Trooper'), Corlynn Hanney, Sharon Minemoto, Ranee Lee, Sophie Bancroft and Liane Carroll. Recently, May has received her bachelor's degree in Jazz Voice Performance at McGill University.
May has sung in the Montreal Jazz Festival with the a cappella group, Effusion in collaboration with the group 'Mandala' and has participated in workshops by Peter Eldridge and Mark Murphy. In 2007, May opened up a show with guitarist Louis-Philippe Gingras for the John Pizzarelli quartet in Rouyn-Noranda for the 2007 Guitar Festival of Abitibi-Temiscamingue. She has also played with Swedish guitarist, Andreas Oberg. This past June marked her first experience touring outside of Quebec as May played with local legends Charlie Austin, Kodi Hutchinson, Joe Lubinsky-Mast and Karl Schwonik at the Beatniq Jazz Club in Calgary, Muttart Hall and Four Rooms restaurant in Edmonton.
