BELOVED ARTIST - People’s Artist and music professor Tạ Bôn, a leading artist of Việt Nam’s contemporary music, died of cancer on April 19 in HCM City. He was 83. Photo courtesy of the artist’s family.

HCM CITY — People’s Artist and music professor Tạ Bôn, a leading musician of Việt Nam’s classical music, died of cancer on April 19 in HCM City. He was 83. 

His funeral takes place on April 23 in HCM City. 

Tạ Bôn was born in 1942 in a traditional family in Hà Tây Province, now Hà Nội. 

He got his love for music from his father, the late musician and People’s Artist Tạ Phước — one of the founders and the first principal of Việt Nam Music School in Hà Nội (now Việt Nam National Academy of Music in Hà Nội).

In 1954, at 12 years of age, he was sent to study violin at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 1958, he was chosen to compete and receive the Certificate of Diplome at the Concours Violon Enescu in Bucharest, Romania. 

Tạ Bôn was sent to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow after graduation in 1958. He was one of the first two students to study music at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the first candidate from Việt Nam to take part in international music competitions in Romania, then Finland.

In 1963, he won a Silver Medal for playing violin at the International Festival for Young People & Students in Helsinki, Finland.  

A year later, after graduation from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he returned home and worked as a music teacher at Việt Nam Music School in Hà Nội at 22. He continued to study music at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory between 1965-1968. 

Professor Tạ Bôn was invited to join the jury of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978, 1982 and 1986. He was also a guest of honour at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, Germany, in 1980 and 1984. 

In 1968-90, he worked and trained violin for students of the Hà Nội Music Conservatory. 

He later moved to live in HCM City and worked for the HCM City Music Conservatory and HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

Many of his students have worked for the HBSO and Việt Nam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO). 

He performed violin in numeral concerts and music festivals at home and in many countries such as China, Cambodia, Russia, Finland, Cuba, Hungary and Bulgaria.

He is survived by his wife, a ballet trainer, a son, also a violinist like him and a daughter, a ballet dancer. — VNS