Vivien Richman was a member of the First Ballad Trio, a Pittsburgh based group that performed in the early 1950's and included Eero and Jo Davidson. She performed in concerts throughout the Midwest at National Folk Festivals, was twice recorded for the "Voice of America" and made countless radio and TV appearances.

In 1958 Viv wrote the album notes for the Folk Songs of Mexico, recorded by Alfonzo Cruz Jimenez. Her own 1959 album, Vivien Richman Sings Folksongs of West Pennsylvania , features Pittsburgh and the steel industry among the 18 songs. She also recorded "Conestoga Wagoner's Complaint" on the album, American History in Ballad and Song, Vol.2.

Originally united by the common bond of making music for their own delight, it was inevitable that Viv and the other two members of the First Ballad Trio joined Bob Schmertz and his family to record the 1955 album, Robert Schmertz Sings His Songs.

For the 1959 Schmertz album, Sing oh! the City oh!, Vivien joined the sextet with her own rich voice and guitar. She wrote the introduction to the album as well as the notes that set the historical scene for each of those songs.

Viv was a professor at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a fund has been set up in her name to provide need-based and merit-based scholarships, the Vivien C. Richman Scholarship.

Vivien C. Richman died in 1990 and is survived by her husband, Hyman Richman, and two daughters.