Vienna Teng - ProfilesArchive

About Me

If you take photos at a show, send them
our way so we can see 'em too!
Please send your concert pics to fanpics at viennateng dot com. You can send a link to the pics, and/or send the pics directly. Thanks!
Since MySpace has increased their available number of pictures, there's enough room for a fan gallery! Get a pic taken with Vienna or a Vienna-related object (VT merchchandise like a CD or a shirt, a location in a song, or some other related thing). Send a message with the URL of your pic, or e-mail it directly to fanpics at viennateng dot com. Include your name(s), and location/date of the pic if you'd like to include it in the caption. You'll find the pics in the Vienna Teng Fans album.

See a behind-the-scenes video of the making of Dreaming Through The Noise:
She shares her name with the Austrian home of Mozart and Beethoven. And she herself studied classical piano from the age of five. But there's nothing old-world about the music of Vienna Teng, whose ZoÃ«/Rounder Records debut brings to mind artists as diverse as Tori Amos, Simon & Garfunkel and Radiohead. "People used to ask what kind of music I played and I never knew how to answer that," says Teng. "I work a lot with classically trained musicians, but most of my influences are from 1970s-era folk music. So now I call it chamber folk." She adds: "I'm always looking for the perfect pop song combined with an unexpected amount of depth; that's my idea of great music."

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/24/2005
Band Website: viennateng.com
Band Members:

Bandmates
Alex Wong (percussion, guitar, vocals), co-founder of The Animators , is currently recording a debut EP for The Paper Raincoat, his project with Amber Rubarth . He also plays in Deadbeat Darling .
Claudia Chopek (violin, vocals - East Coast) has toured with Vince Gill, Hem and many others, when not in New York playing Broadway productions and other local gigs.
Dina Maccabee (violin, viola, vocals - West Coast) is one half of the duo Ramon & Jessica .
She also performs with Gamelan X and the Real Vocal String Quartet , among other things.
Jessica Ivry (cello, vocals - West Coast) performs with the Real Vocal String Quartet and Everyday Theatre .
Paul Brantley (cello, vocals - East Coast) teaches at the Manhattan School of Music , and composes for various ensembles. His work "Electric Fan," for full orchestra, premieres in May.
Marika Hughes (cello, vocals) played in the first VT trio and various configurations since. These days she keeps busy with Charlie Burnham and Two Foot Yard . All of the above projects are excellent.

Others who've been known to appear on stage: Alan Lin (violin, vocals) Avey Gonzalez (bass) Doug Yowell (drums)Eli Manjarrez (bass) Eric Cheng (cello) Jim Batcho (drums) John Given (guitar) Nate Query (bass)Shahzad Ismaily (drums, guitar) Todd Sickafoose (bass) They are also excellent.

Influences: My parents' record collection: Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Mozart and Beethoven, 60s Mandarin pop. That's what I started with and it'll never leave me. Later on, pianist-songwriters: Elton John, Billy Joel, Tori Amos. These days I'm influenced by whoever intimidates me. I hear them, I'm astounded by them, I think daily about quitting music because I'll never be able to do it as well as they do. Then I try to steal from them without imitating. A tricky thing.
Sounds Like:

Record Label: ZoÃ« (Rounder)
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

postcard from the studio, day 15

No, I can count; yes, it has been over a month since we started. It's a fits-and-starts recording process. Lots of location scouting, practicing, phone calls and emails in between. Not to mention trip...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:07:00 PST

postcard from the studio, day 1

Greetings from a business park in San Clemente, one of the unlikelier places to find a recording studio. I've been getting my tacos de pescado fix every time we break for a meal. There are two small ...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Fri, 16 May 2008 07:15:00 PST

a few post-Earth Day thoughts

Backstage in Montclair, New Jersey. Stephanie White is rehearsing with Robbie LaFalce in the other roomwhat a voice.I took the train this afternoon: the J out of Brooklyn, then the F up to 34th Stre...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Thu, 01 May 2008 06:56:00 PST

here, Ill send you elsewhere

Things are brewing nicely around here. The leaves of album 4 have dropped into the water. It's ambitious, this record, on pretty much every front; at times I already feel I'm in over my head but in ...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:04:00 PST

hello Monday

Working on Sid Arthur this afternoon and getting stuck. Setting meditation sessions to music is tricky business. Rehearsals for a reading begin tomorrow, so I'm hoping this traffic jam clears up soon....
Posted by Vienna Teng on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:11:00 PST

a video for Gravity (or, reasons why I love a life in music)

Yes, it's trueI'm finally going to have a video for an album track! Fat Monster Films picked the song several months ago, developed the concept and shot half the footage before approaching me about b...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:48:00 PST

Huckleberry Hill

I write to you, way past my bedtime, from here.It's truly amazingchaotic yet orderly, functionally frivolous. The man who created it gave us a comprehensive tour of the interior when we arrived, and...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:16:00 PST

spring in January

Hello from Northern California, where I've been camped since mid-December or so. I swear I didn't orchestrate this as an escape from the East Coast winter; at any rate, the house here has its thermost...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:11:00 PST

crunching numbers (or, better late than never)

Life finally slowed down enough for me in September to sort through the mound of receipts, reports, bank statements and envelopes that comprise the Green Caravan tour paperwork. I have such a highly o...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:09:00 PST

the trophys in the mail, we hear

Been thoroughly enjoying the shows so far, the audiences have been kind, we even had a rock 'n roll moment when a piano string snapped at Joe's Pub and went flying over the heads of my bandmates, but ...
Posted by Vienna Teng on Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:45:00 PST