Still beloved in his native Vietnam, Dang has called Montreal home for many years, and he was the winner of Canada’s Prix Opus in 2016 for what was deemed the finest concert of the year. Since winning the Chopin Competition, he has performed with virtually every major orchestra across Europe and alongside the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, and numerous other legendary musicians. Discovered during a visit to Vietnam by Russian pianist Isaac Katz, a young Dang eventually took up studies at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Vladimir Natanson and Dmitri Bashkirov. As a boy growing up in a remote village, he played on dilapidated pianos that were rescued from his mother’s school in Hanoi amid a rain of bombs from U.S. Not now is invariably the answer, but perhaps the time will come.īorn and raised in Vietnam, Dang Thai Son began his own piano studies with his mother, Thai Thi Lien, co-founder of what is known today as the Vietnam National Academy of Music. “Every day, I get emails now with parents saying, My son is eight years old…can he take lessons with you?” says the teacher with the oversized laugh and the gentle disposition. His profound impact on young pianists is among the worst-kept secrets around.
He's also seemingly the only one with so many students who earn the right to compete there.
In nearly a century of the Chopin Competition, Dang is the only champion to mentor another pianist to victory. Yet another standout Oberlin student and Dang protégé, third-year pianist Kai-Min Chang of Taiwan, also qualified for the competition but was ousted in the quarterfinal round, after performing through an illness.Īt the last Chopin Competition, in 2015, Dang’s students earned third, fourth, and fifth prize- half of all the prizes awarded that year. Seventeen-year-old Bui-the youngest pianist to advance to the finals this year-finished sixth, bringing members of the jury to tears with his emotive performances. He was joined by Bruce Xaioyu Liu, a 24-year-old pianist who has studied at Oberlin as a fellow of the Oberlin-Como Piano Academy. In October, Oberlin second-year piano major JJ Bui advanced to the finals of the 18th Chopin Piano Competition. Today, Dang’s students are following in the master’s footsteps in almost unbelievable ways. He has devoted the four decades since to performing and teaching around the world, earning accolades everywhere he goes. Widely acclaimed for his interpretations of Chopin, the Oberlin Conservatory professor saw his illustrious career take flight in 1980 when he won first prize at the 10th Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland-one of the world’s most revered and most rigorous musical competitions.
People who know about piano tend to know about Dang Thai Son.
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