 |
ON KEY: Teng trained as a classical
pianist, but her songs have contemporary themes.
Courtesy Virt Records/Adam
Tow
|
when vienna teng began her
sultry tunes in Boston’s noisy House
of Blues, “the entire room was completely silent,” says
Michael Tarlowe of Virt Records. “People sat on the
sticky floor, five rows deep.”
The 25-year-old singer/songwriter
is receiving national media attention for her first
album. “That
Norah Jones chick ain’t got nothing on self-described ‘music
geek’ Vienna Teng,” said the San Francisco
Examiner. But 21 months ago, Teng hadn’t even performed
outside of Bay Area open mikes. She was pretty much
just Cynthia
Shih, ’00, software engineer.
A classically trained
pianist, Teng came up with her romantic moniker as
a preteen. “That
way I can separate me as myself from whatever this career
is,” she says, “because
music careers have a way of taking over your persona.” Teng
may be the one performing, but it’s Shih’s insight
and calming voice that show through.
Her music is a weave
of mesmerizing storytelling and lush piano, a contemporary
sound often compared to Sarah
McLachlan or Tori Amos. Her songs, called “musical
portraits” by her close friend Carolyn Anzia, ’98,
MA ’99, are often rooted in Stanford—“The
Tower” is about Teng’s roommate in the French
House; “Unwritten Letter #1” tells of unrequited
love for her SLE tutor.
Though the Bay Area native thought
she would go on to graduate school, small audiences
gathered when the computer
science major improvised on the dorm piano. “It became
very clear she had a gift for songwriting,” says Anzia.
When Eric Miller, ’99, needed to record someone for
a class, Teng saw her chance. Later, the two collaborated
in their spare time, and Waking Hour came out in May
2001. Teng had a job at Cisco Systems, but by then, she
says, “I
sort of had it in my head that I wanted to try and launch
a music career.”
Miller created a website, while Teng
sent her album to web reviewers and uploaded singles
onto free MP3 sites.
She played local coffeehouses, carting CDs around in
her car
trunk. In one year, she sold 1,000.
Right on cue, the
record deal came along. Tarlowe, founder of Virt Records—a
small, artist-friendly label—stumbled
upon one of Teng’s MP3s. “I was just floored,” he
said. In February 2002, he flew across the country
for Teng’s
next “big” show in Mountain View. She signed
that spring.
Since then, Teng’s career has entered a
sort of adolescence—she’s
been finding her audience and gaining recognition.
She quit the day job. Waking Hour was re-released.
Her big break came in January, when NPR profiled her. That morning, Waking
Hour shot up to No. 5 on Amazon.com. The Late Show
with David Letterman heard the broadcast and invited
Teng to play. “I said, ‘You’re kidding me. Which Letterman show
. . . the real one?’” says Teng. That appearance
prompted CNN’s News Night with Aaron Brown to follow
Teng around for an up-and-coming-artist profile.
It isn’t
all lights and cameras. From February through the fall, Teng
has been peddling her music around the
country. She rattles off geographic regions like a grocery
list. This
summer, she opened for major artists Joan Osborne and
Shawn Colvin, but Teng typically plays for audiences
of a few hundred.
She travels solo, driving a compact rental car to the
next show and lugging out her keyboard. “I actually
love it,” she says. “It’s a distorted but
very nice lifestyle, in terms of seeing the good side
of human
nature everywhere you go, people being very open and
communicative and wanting to participate in something.”
Friends
are thrilled at her growing success—“They
feel like their taste in music has been validated!” Teng
says. Her parents worry more, about the lifestyle and
intense travel. But they’ve seen how her music affects
people, she says. “So I think they understand why I’m
doing it.”
Even if her career matures fast, Teng has
no plans to leave behind her quirky sense of humor
(website photos include
ramen noodles cooking in a coffeepot), the desire to
keep reinventing herself, or her perspective. “Her
modesty about her talent is absolutely unaffected,” says
Anzia.
“The times I have been mobbed for autographs or people
taking my picture nonstop, it’s [been] pretty disturbing,” Teng
says. “So, I think maybe I’m not cut out to be
a rock star.” What she does enjoy is “bringing
people together who wouldn’t be otherwise for a couple
of hours.”
Teng will tour again when her second album
comes out in early 2004. In the interim, she hopes
to study more
piano and composing. “I would love to keep expanding
my abilities,” she
says. “I want to write something new.”  |
