Vienna Teng

Teng performing in San Francisco

Vienna Teng (born Cynthia Yih Shih [史逸欣] on October 3, 1978 in Saratoga , California ) is an American pianist , singer and singer-songwriter of Taiwanese descent. Your stage name “Vienna” alludes to the classical music of the Austrian capital Vienna . She currently lives in Detroit , Michigan .

music

Teng's music is characterized above all by a calm melody, multilayered piano arrangements and her delicate, clear voice. Her music contains folk , jazz and pop elements as well as a cappella influences. Your lyrics are narrative and emotional.

Vienna Teng sings mostly in English. The song Green Island Serenade , which is included as a hidden track on her second album Warm Strangers , she sings in Mandarin . The song is a Taiwanese classic from the 1950s and became famous for its interpretation by Teresa Teng .

Life

Vienna Teng played the piano at the age of five and composed for the first time at the age of six. She first studied computer engineering at Stanford University . There she joined the Stanford Harmonics , a student a cappella group. She began recording her compositions in the studios of Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) to promote her music on campus. Many of these recordings were later released on their debut album, Waking Hour . After graduating from university in 2000, Teng worked as a programmer for Cisco Systems, but continued to make music in her free time. In 2002 she signed a record deal with Virt Records and eventually quit her job at Cisco to devote herself to her music career.

Teng (right) with her tour drummer Alex Wong

In January 2003, her first major television appearance was on David Letterman's Late Show, and other television and radio appearances followed. She stepped in the opening act of Joan Baez , Shawn Colvin , Joan Osborne , Sarah Harmer and Marc Cohn on. Their debut album, Waking Hour , made it to number 5 on Amazon.com's bestseller list and their second album, Warm Strangers, made it to number 2.

In 2006 Teng switched to the record label Rounder Records , where she recorded her third album, Dreaming Through The Noise, with the assistance of producer and bassist Larry Klein . Between December 2006 and spring 2007 she toured the United States with this album. She toured with Duncan Sheik and supported Madeleine Peyroux . In April 2007 she started her Green Caravan Tour , on which she played with the cellist Marika Hughes , the violinist Dina Maccabee and the drummer Alex Wong, and on which David Berkeley and Jenny Owen Youngs were the opening acts .

Their fourth album, Inland Territory , was released in Europe in early February 2009 and in the USA in early April 2009 .

At the beginning of 2019 she announced her marriage to Jacob Corvidae and is expecting her first child in spring 2020.

Discography

• Waking Hour (2002)
• Warm Strangers (2004)
• Dreaming Through the Noise (2006)
• Inland Territory (2009)
• The Moment Always Vanishing (Live) (2010)
• Aims (2013)

Web links

Commons : Vienna Teng  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• German and engl. Interview with Carsten Schmidt at [1] , July 2011