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Vienna Teng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Vienna Teng | ||
|---|---|---|
 Album cover for Waking Hour
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | (史逸欣, Shǐ Yìxīn) | |
| Born | October 3, 1978 Saratoga, California, United States of America |
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| Genre(s) | Folk, Pop | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano | |
| Years active | 2003 - present | |
| Label(s) | Virt, Rounder | |
| Website | http://www.viennateng.com | |
Vienna Teng (Chinese: 史逸欣, Pinyin: Shǐ Yìxīn[1][2], born October 3, 1978) is a Taiwanese-American pianist and singer-songwriter based in San Francisco. Her musical style, a mixture of folk and pop, draws on the influences of performers such as Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. She has released three studio albums, Waking Hour (2002), Warm Strangers (2004), and Dreaming Through The Noise (2006).
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Teng took her stage name "Vienna" from the Austrian city famous for its musical history; the last name "Teng" is possibly taken from the famous Taiwanese songstress Teresa Teng[3] . She is a native of Saratoga, California and 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. 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 was an appearance on the David Letterman show in January 2003; she has also 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 debut 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]
As of December 2006, she is touring extensively across the U.S. to promote the release of her third album. Highlights of this tour include co-headlining with Duncan Sheik and opening for Madeleine Peyroux.
Her songs have been featured in various projects, namely the TV series Ed and on the Discovery Channel. In addition, Teng contributed her vocals to the song "One 2 One" by hip-hop duo Magnetic North.
Although the majority of her recordings are in English, the hidden track 12, "Green Island Serenade" on her Warm Strangers album is performed in Mandarin Chinese. The song was a 1950's Taiwanese classic, once also performed by Teresa Teng.
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- ^ http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/novdec/show/noteworthy.html
- ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0612110136dec11,1,1818892.story?coll=chi-ent_music-hed
- ^ There is a forum chain in Vienna Teng's official site regarding the origin of Vienna choosing 'Teng' as her stage last name. There was an answer posted by 'bryanbu' saying 'Vienna choose this name as a preteen. Preteen's and teen-agers don't need logic or good reasons to do things.'. Retrieved on March 25, 2007.
- ^ Vienna Teng - News (2003). Retrieved on December 2, 2006.
- ^ Rounder Records - Vienna Teng - Bio. Retrieved on December 2, 2006.
- ^ Zoë/Rounder Records Signs Vienna Teng. Retrieved on December 2, 2006.
- ViennaTeng.com. Vienna Teng's official website.
- 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
- Collectedsounds.com interview in which Vienna Teng discusses her musical history and influences.