World-renowned Vietnamese-Canadian pianist Dang Thai Son, whose performance last night opened the ongoing International Piano Festival, shared his happiness to be performing at home and helping local students with their studies.

The International Piano Festival, a biennial event that gathers local and international seasoned pianists, is running at Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music from Dec 2 to Dec 7.

During his opening performance last night, Son performed several pieces by local composers in his home country for the first time.

The artist has also performed “Nguoi di dau” (Where are you going) by local composer Do Hong Quan in several countries including Russia, Poland and Brazil. He also played “Chum hoa Viet Nam” (The Vietnamese flower clusters) by Vietnamese composer Dang Huu Phuc in Canada during a show to mark the 40th anniversary of Vietnam – Canada diplomatic ties.

The artist shared that although he has always wanted to come back to Vietnam once a year and hold more master classes here to help develop the potential of local students, his hectic performing and lecturing schedule has kept him from doing so. Apart from working as a lecturer at Montreal University in Canada, Son has held a good number of master classes in many countries and sat on the jury of several piano competitions.

“Having taught in several countries, I agree with the foreign professors that overseas Vietnamese students are endowed with exceptional music gifts. Their appreciation of music is brilliant and they are remarkably strong with melodies and pitch. I think that this strength is partly associated with the melodious Vietnamese language, which boasts six diacritics. However, Vietnamese students still need to improve a lot on their understanding of rhythm and tempo. This weakness is perhaps due to the limited number of dances and tempos in Vietnamese culture,” Son noted.

Despite his burning passion for music and a lengthy performance career, the 55-year-old artist maintained that performing is his only strength and source of inspiration and creativity. As a result, he won’t try his hand with composing now or later.

Born in 1958 in Hanoi to a musical family, Vietnamese-Canadian pianist Dang Thai Son has achieved great acclaim worldwide.

He was catapulted to stardom after becoming the first-ever Asian artist and the only Vietnamese pianist to win the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition in 1980. Most famous for his delicate interpretations of Chopin, Son was also the first Asian virtuoso to be on the jury for the 2005 Chopin Concours.

The youngest artist ever to be named the People’s Artist - one of the most coveted titles bestowed on Vietnamese artists - when he was only 26, Son has made remarkable contributions to promoting classical music in Vietnam and training local young artists.