Thái Thị Liên, Việt Nam's matriarch pianist and pedagogue, passes away

She trained many talented pianists, with the most internationally successful concert pianist being her youngest son, Đặng Thái Sơn. Born in 1918 in what was then Sài Gòn of French Indochina to a wealthy Catholic family, her father was one of the few Vietnamese French-trained engineers. She was a messenger for the revolutionary forces and her Sài Gòn music salon was a rendezvous for patriotic elite congressmen and medical doctors, lawyers and artists. In 1980, she once again became known across the country when her son Sơn won the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, which shocked the piano world. Newspapers lauded the up-and-coming young pianist from war-torn Việt Nam becoming the winner of the world's oldest and most prestigious piano competition.