- Date Of Birth: February 5, 1977
- Date Of Death: October 20, 2022
- State: New Mexico
Dr. Tzufeng Liu, pianist and teacher, passed away Thursday, October 20, 2022, at age 45 after suffering a brain aneurysm. Efforts of the fine doctors and staff at the UNM hospital neurological department are greatly appreciated by the family and friends of Tzufeng. She is survived by her husband Benjamin (Ben) Cho, 9-year-old son Connor Cho, father Iru Liu, mother Chinhua Lu, and brother Teyao Liu. Tzufeng was born in Taipei, Taiwan, attended National Taiwan Normal University, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she and Ben met and began their life together. After moving to Albuquerque in 2007, she started a home piano studio while performing numerous accompaniments and chamber music performances with the UNM music department and other organizations. From 2011 to 2013 she served as music faculty at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC. Following the birth of Connor in 2013, she moved back to Albuquerque and resumed performing and teaching.
Tzufeng was living her life to the fullest at the time of her passing, conducting a vibrant piano teaching studio out of her home. There she educated students of all ages, ranging from young children to retirees, with active plans to expand the studio out of her home to include additional piano teachers, voice, and other instruments. She cared deeply about her students’ education, wanting them to excel and striving to provide them with the best instruction possible. Tzufeng had a steadfast belief in piano competitions as a way to foster personal development and character via hard work, practice, and ongoing dedication towards a goal. A competitive fire burned brightly inside her to develop top-tier competition-ready students. Tzufeng was also deeply involved in the local music community, serving as President of the Albuquerque Music Teachers Association (AMTA), Competition Chair for the NM Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and board member for the Vocal Artistry Art Song Festival of New Mexico.
She had just started a nonprofit group, The Woven Sounds, with a friend and colleague based out of Austin, TX, with a goal of promoting lesser-known Asian classical music and composers through concert series, competitions, and music camps. Their first concerts were performed March 2022 in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Tzufeng reveled in live performances of all types. She recently played a solo piano performance featuring pieces by Kapustin, Schubert, Berg, and Ravel at St. John’s Methodist Church in Santa Fe, a chamber concert with Mozart G minor piano quartet and Two Songs for Soprano and Piano Trio by Amy Beach at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, and with the New Mexico Philharmonic in “The Musical World of John Williams” at UNM’s Keller Hall in Albuquerque.
Outside of the music world, Tzufeng had a passion for fashion. She loved searching out scarves with intricate artwork reflecting aspects of her life like music, nature, and, as a New Mexico resident, chile peppers. Tzufeng enjoyed traveling and camping, the latter somewhat surprising for a Taipei-raised big-city sweetheart kind-of-girl.
Tzufeng’s family, friends, students, and professional acquaintances will miss her dearly but also treasure the precious times spent together and hope that her spirit of generosity, kindness, and sense of humor can live on through others. She will live forever in the hearts and memories of the countless people she touched in her time on this Earth. Rest in Peace Tzufeng.
