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Vienna Teng

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Vienna Teng (born October 3, 1978) is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in New York City. Teng has released three studio albums, Waking Hour (2002), Warm Strangers (2004), and Dreaming Through The Noise (2006).

Teng's musical style incorporates folk, pop, classical piano, and a cappella influences. She uses piano as her primary instrument and charges her lyrics with emotion, narrative, and personal history. A skilled vocalist, Teng is a baseline alto but sings over a wide range.

Career

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. 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, 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 the David Letterman show 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 in concert 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. In 2006, Teng signed with Zoë/Rounder.

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.

Teng's songs have been featured in a number of television projects, including the series Ed and on the Discovery Channel.

Teng contributed vocals to the song "One 2 One" by hip-hop duo Magnetic North.

Music

Although the majority 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

References

External links



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Last updated on Wednesday March 05, 2008 at 20:10:12 PST (GMT -0800)
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