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Vienna Teng

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Vienna Teng

Vienna Teng (born Cynthia Yih Shih on October 3, 1978) is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in New York City. Teng has released four studio albums: Waking Hour (2002), Warm Strangers (2004), Dreaming Through The Noise (2006) and her latest album, Inland Territory, which was released in the United States on April 7, 2009.

Teng's musical style incorporates folk, pop, classical piano, and a cappella. She uses piano as her primary instrument and writes lyrics with emotion, narrative, and personal history. Teng is a soprano, and sings over a wide range.

Career

Teng performing at the Independent in San Francisco

Teng took her stage name "Vienna" from the capital city of Austria. A native of Saratoga, California, she began playing classical piano at age 5. While pursuing a degree in computer science at Stanford University, Teng joined the Stanford Harmonics, a student-run a cappella group.[3] She began recording her compositions at the studios in Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), intending to distribute her music on campus. Many of these recordings were eventually released in her debut album Waking Hour. After graduating in 2000, Teng worked as a software engineer for Cisco Systems in San Francisco, but she continued to write music and perform in her free time. In 2002, Teng signed with Virt Records and quit Cisco Systems to focus on her musical career.

Teng's first major national exposure was on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman in January 2003. She has since made appearances on the CBS Saturday Early Show, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, CNN's NewsNight with Aaron Brown and The Wayne Brady Show, and opened concerts for Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Sarah Harmer and Marc Cohn. Her first album, Waking Hour, peaked at #5 on the Amazon.com bestseller list; her second album, Warm Strangers, reached as high as #2.[4][5] In 2006, Teng signed with Zoë/Rounder.[6]

Teng performing at Joe's Pub in 2007.

From December 2006 to early 2007, she toured extensively in the United States to promote the release of her third album, Dreaming Through the Noise. Teng co-headlined with Duncan Sheik and opened for Madeleine Peyroux. She began the Green Caravan Tour in April 2007, accompanied by cellist Marika Hughes, violinist Dina Maccabee, and percussionist Alex Wong, along with opening acts such as David Berkeley and Jenny Owen Youngs. In 2008, she relocated from California to New York City, and performed in Central Park on Earth Day at the Green Apple Festival.


Music

Although nearly all of Teng's recordings are in English, the hidden track "Green Island Serenade" on Warm Strangers is performed in Mandarin Chinese. The song is a 1950's Taiwanese classic famously performed by Teresa Teng.

Discography

Notes

  1. ^ STANFORD Magazine: November/December 2003 > Showcase > Noteworthy
  2. ^ Topic Galleries - chicagotribune.com
  3. ^ "Alums". Harmonics Alums. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  4. ^ "Vienna Teng - News". 2003. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
  5. ^ "Rounder Records - Vienna Teng - Bio". Retrieved 2006-12-02.
  6. ^ "Zoë/Rounder Records Signs Vienna Teng". Retrieved 2006-12-02.

References

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