In Colorado, the May and her husband founded the Canyon Youth Orchestra and adopted a lifelong philosophy of community involvement through music.
[1] In the early 1990s, May moved to Central Florida, where she continued to teach strings, help her husband expand his burgeoning youth orchestras, and gave birth to two more children.
Despite a terrible car accident that threatened her career as a cellist and music teacher, she would also teach music at Millennium Middle School in Sanford, Florida, and build a comprehensive strings program with Jonathan at Trinity Preparatory School, where she has worked for the last 10 years.
[3] She has also performed in accompanying orchestras with many notable pop musicians such as Jimmy Page, Harry Connick Jr., Donny Osmond, Smokey Robinson, as well as famous tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.
Upon completion of The Phoenix Rising, a Stella Sung piece commissioned years earlier by Jonathan, Orlando Phil maestro Christopher Wilkins walked into the orchestra and gave Maureen a warm embrace.
"[10] In what would become a foundation of their educational philosophy, the Mays insisted on strong musical direction in all their programs.
As Maureen later explained to Trinity Voice, the orchestra abandoned the vision of her husband and sought to create a strong board with weak musical directors: "Jonathan May trusted for years in multiple orchestras.
The world premiere performance of the piece, Tall and Small, a commissioned work by Jonathan's brother, Daniel May, is named to reflect the wide impact May's passion for music had on children and adults alike.
[16][17] Seated at the front of the orchestra in front of the sellout audience, Maureen played the piece's cello solo on Jonathan's cello, with the music culminating in a resolution that the Orlando Sentinel described as "that moment when the sun emerges after a long stretch of rain.