Vienna Teng

Vienna Teng
Teng performing at Joe's Pub in 2007.
Background information
Birth name	Cynthia Yih Shih[1][2] (Chinese: 史逸欣; pinyin: Shǐ Yìxīn)
Born	October 3, 1978 (1978-10-03) (age 33) Saratoga, California, U.S.
Genres	Folk, pop, indie folk, chamber pop
Occupations	Singer-Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Virt, Rounder
Website	viennateng.com

Cynthia Yih Shih (b. October 3, 1978, Saratoga, California), better known by her stage name Vienna Teng, is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Teng has released four studio albums: Waking Hour (2002), Warm Strangers (2004), Dreaming Through the Noise (2006), and Inland Territory (2009). She has also released one live album, The Moment Always Vanishing (2009), on which she is double-billed with her percussionist, Alex Wong.

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.

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 Jose, 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.

Inland Territory won the ninth annual Independent Music Awards Vox Pop vote for best Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album.^[7]

In March 2010, Teng announced to her fans that she had been accepted into the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan to study sustainable enterprise. Teng continues to compose music and tour, although she does not tour as frequently as she had before enrolling.

Cultural influence on music

Although nearly all of Teng's recordings are in English, Warm Strangers features a hidden cover of "Green Island Serenade," a 1950's Taiwanese classic by Teresa Teng performed in Mandarin Chinese. Teng has also stated live that the lyrics to "Grandmother Song" from Inland Territory are nearly a verbatim translation of a lecture Teng received from her Mandarin-speaking grandmother, voicing her disapproval of Teng's career choice.

Discography

• 2001: Waking Hour - self-produced
• 2002: Waking Hour - Virt Records
• 2004: Warm Strangers - Virt Records
• 2006: Dreaming Through the Noise - Zoë/Rounder
• 2009: Inland Territory - Zoë/Rounder
• 2009: The Moment Always Vanishing - self-produced live album; recorded at Joe's Pub in New York City on December 20, 2009

References

1. ^ Moore, Summer (November/December 2003). "NOTEWORTHY: Changing Her Tune". STANFORD Magazine. http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/novdec/show/noteworthy.html. 
2. ^ Topic Galleries - chicagotribune.com
3. ^ "Alums". Harmonics Alums. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928100558/http://www.stanfordharmonics.com/alumni. Retrieved 2007-05-14. 
4. ^ "Vienna Teng - News". 2003. http://v1.viennateng.com/info/news.html. Retrieved 2006-12-02. 
5. ^ "Rounder Records - Vienna Teng - Bio". http://www.rounder.com/?id=bio.php&musicalGroupId=7629. Retrieved 2006-12-02. 
6. ^ "Zoë/Rounder Records Signs Vienna Teng". http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=news.php&newsId=539. Retrieved 2006-12-02. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ "Album Nominees : 9th Annual Independent Music Awards". http://www.independentmusicawards.com/imanominee/9th/Album/Folk-Singer-Songwriter. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 

External links

• "Vienna Teng Biography". Virt Records. Archived from the original on March 22, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060322201137/http://www.virtrecords.com/viennateng/bio.html. 
• Biography at official website
• Vienna Teng's official YouTube channel
• Vienna Teng's Twitter page
• v1.ViennaTeng.com - Vienna Teng's first website (2000–2004)
• WarmStrangers.com-Unofficial fansite with song anecdotes, a list of unreleased tracks, and a database of live performances.
• Vienna Teng collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Paradigm interview - August 2007 interview with Vienna Teng. Located under "Music."
• Collectedsounds.com - Interview in which Vienna Teng discusses her musical history and influences.
• Vienna Teng interview (September 2007) with asiaXpress.com
• Kaplan, Shari (November 27, 2002). "Saratoga Style: Talented local musician plays at Blue Rock Shoot". Saratoga News (Saratoga, California). http://www.community-newspapers.com/archives/saratoganews/20021127/sn-style1.shtml. 

Persondata
Name	Teng, Vienna
Alternative names	Yih Shih, Cynthia
Short description
Date of birth	1978-10-03
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death