Feet firmly on the ground despite fame

Viet Nam News, Hanoi

Twenty-five years ago, a young man from war-torn Vietnam made headlines when he won the Grand Prix of the world's oldest piano competition, the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.

The year was 1980. As the lights dimmed and the audience fell silent, 22 -year-old Dang Thai Son sat alone at the piano, momentarily overcome by fear. He was the first Vietnamese ever to enter the Chopin international piano competition, up against 148 other young pianists from around the world.

Yet as he began to play, his fingers floating across the keyboard with precision and grace, he once more felt calm and in control.

He won the gold medal. "It was my biggest dream," he said. "I thought it was too much."

Born into a family with a music-mad father and a mother who was a professional pianist, Son was surrounded by music throughout his childhood. He fell in love with the works of the Polish-born French composer after his mother was invited to the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1970 as a guest and returned home with a complete set of Chopin scores and recordings.

Isaac Katz, a Russian pianist who visited Hanoi in 1974, heard Son's playing and immediately saw his potential. Katz tutored him and Son won a scholarship to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he spent eight years.

Since winning the Chopin competition prize and then graduating from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1983, his career has been a whirlwind of world-class concert halls, orchestras and recordings.

He became the first Asian to be invited to teach at the famous music department at Montreal University and is now a Canadian citizen.

However, he hasn't let success overwhelm him and acknowledges the limitations faced by an Asian playing a musical instrument designed for Europeans.

"I am an Asian, but I play Western classical music, so I should combine the two cultures in my performance and playing style," he said.

In 1999, Son was the only non-Polish pianist invited to play at a special concert in Warsaw that commemorated the 150th anniversary of Chopin's death. This year, he also took part in the Toyota Classical Concert Program back in Hanoi.

"I believe I don't have to be in Vietnam to contribute to my homeland," he said, but added that he dreams of establishing his own school here, but not to make money.

The priority would be to "discover and support talents from Vietnam," he said.