INTERVIEW
When and where was your first concert with the MCO? Don Giovanni, 1998 in Aix-en-Provence.
What’s the best thing about playing with the MCO? The full dedication.
What is your most memorable moment with the orchestra? The last 21 years.
What do you need to feel at home while on tour? A balanced mind.
What is the best thing about being a musician?
Being
able to do so many incredible and different things.
BIOGRAPHY
May Kunstovny, born in Vienna, started playing violin at the age of 5. She began her studies at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe with Nachum Erlich and continued at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Mi-Kyung Lee, where she took her Bachelor’s exam. She furthered her studies with a Master’s degree at the Conservatory in Amsterdam with Lex Korff de Gidts and Alexander Kerr, and completed them with lessons from Thomas Brandis in Berlin and Lucy van Dael in Amsterdam.
May joined the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 1996. She participated in tours with Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink and Pierre Boulez before becoming one of the founding members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 1998.
In addition to the MCO, May loves to play on period instruments and has played with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment , the Orchestre des Champs Élysées and in her adopted home of Oslo, is part of the Norwegian Baroque Ensemble, Barokkanerne.
