About
Zach May is a Westchester, NY-based music educator and cellist. In ten years of teaching at White Plains High School, he has grown the orchestra program to well over 200 students, founded New York’s first public high school mariachi, Mariachi Juvenil Los Tigres de WPHS, earned multiple Level VI “Gold with Distinction” ratings at NYSSMA Majors Festivals, led multi-day performance tours to Montreal, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and been invited to perform at the NYSSMA Winter Conference. Zach has also served as president of NY-ASTA and WCSMA Area All-State orchestra chairperson, presented at music education conferences in six states, and been invited to guest conduct the Westchester Intermediate All-County orchestra. He has received grants from the Give A Note Foundation, Friends of White Plains Public Schools, and the WPHS PTA to support his work in the classroom.
Outside the Classroom
Zach performs as associate principal cellist of the Taconic Opera, and as a cellist and bass voice with the Christ’s Church (Rye) Choir. He frequently arranges works for orchestra and mariachi, with a special focus on adapting works by notable women composers for school-level string orchestras. Zach has also taught the Low String Methods course at the Aaron Copland School of Music, CUNY Queens College and performed with Orchestra 914 and the St. Thomas Orchestra. Zach enjoys reading chamber music and expanding his cello playing with loop and effects pedals.
