People’s Teacher and People’s Artist Thai Thi Lien. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – People’s Teacher and People’sArtist Thai Thi Lien, mother of People’s Artist Dang Thai Son, passed away ather home on January 31 at the age of 106.
Lien was born in 1918 in Ho Chi Minh City into an intellectualfamily. Her father was Thai Van Lan, one of the first Vietnamese electricalengineer graduating in France.
She started playing the piano when she was four. Atthe age of 100, she still played music every day.
Thai Thi Lien and Dang Thai Son (Photo: VNA) In 1946, Lien studied in France. She got married to Tran Ngoc Danh, who was then head of the permanent delegation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After that she and her husband returned to Vietnam and joined the resistance against theFrench colonialists. She and Danh had two children - Tran Thu Ha and Tran Thanh Binh. After Danh passed away, Lien got married to her second husband Dang Dinh Hung with whom she had a son - Dang Thai Son.
Lien was among the founders of the Vietnam Music School (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music) and headedthe Piano Department until she retired in 1977.
Lien was also one of the first Vietnamese femalepianists and compiled the first piano curricula in Vietnam.
Two of her children also became great artists. People’s Artists Tran Thu Ha was head of the Vietnam National Academy of Music and People's Artist Dang Thai Son was the firstAsian pianist to win the first prize at the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1980./.
