Vienna Teng

On October 3, 1978 in San Jose, California, Cynthia Shih entered the world to Taiwanese immigrant parents.  Raised in Saratoga, at an early age Shih showed a gift for playing the piano, and she took lessons from age five through seventeen.  By age twelve she changed her name to Vienna Teng out of respect for the Austrian city that produced many classical composers.

After high school she attended Stanford University with the intent to study pre-med.  Teng changed her mind and pursued a computer science degree instead because she thought it a good profession to help pay for her desire to play the piano and sing.  While at Stanford she joined an a cappella group, the Stanford Harmonics, and with help from an audio engineering student, she recorded her compositions on campus.  Believing she would hand out her music around the university, she instead later decided to hold onto the recordings.

Graduating from Stanford, Teng worked at Cisco Systems for two years until she signed with Seattle-based Virt Records, quitting her software engineering job for a career in music.  Successful, Teng produced two albums.  Several songs from the first album came from her recordings at Stanford.  Then Teng signed with the Zoe/Rounder label in 2006 and toured before releasing her third album, Dreaming Through the Noise.  Her next album Inland Territory is due out in 2009.  When she isn't on tour, Teng lives in New York City.

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