Vienna Teng
Vienna Teng (史逸欣 born October 1978) is a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter. Her musical style, a mixture of folk and pop, draws on the influences of artists such as Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. She has released two albums, Waking Hour (2002) and Warm Strangers (2004); a third album entitled Dreaming Through The Noise was released in July 2006.
Teng, who is Taiwanese-American, took her stage name "Vienna" from the Austrian city famous for its musical history. She began studying classical piano at the age of 5, and continued while she was working toward her degree in computer science at Stanford University, which she completed in 2000. She began recording the songs for Waking Hour at Stanford's CCRMA studios while a student, to distribute on campus to students who would crowd around her at the piano on campus. After working as a software engineer for Cisco Systems for two years, continuing to write and perform in her free time, she signed with Virt Records and quit Cisco to focus on her musical career.
Her first major national exposure came with her 2003 appearance on the David Letterman show; she has also made appearances on the CBS Saturday Early Show, NPR Weekend Edition, CNN's NewsNight with Aaron Brown, and The Wayne Brady Show, and opened for performances by Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez and Joan Osborne. Her debut album, Waking Hour, peaked at #5 on the Amazon.com bestseller list; her second album, Warm Strangers, reached as high as #2.
Teng signed with the Zoë/Rounder label in 2006.
Discography
- Waking Hour (2002)
- Warm Strangers (2004)
- Dreaming Through The Noise (to be released July 2006) [1]