Vienna Teng

I remembered I first heard of Vienna in bay area. That was around 2003, probably after she cut her first album. If memory didn't fail me, I was reading a blog from a Stanford dude and somehow it alluded to her. Being curious, I clicked on that link and learned about this girl who was a Stanford CS major and decided to pursue music. Impressive and bold ... as I thought, since she was my age, dared to quit Cisco and took the move of venturing into something totally different while I was still slogging away at Oracle.

Fast forward 5 years. I was at the Asian American Conference on Politics and Policy at Harvard Law. Sitting at the dinner table anxiously waiting for food ;p ... as I turned, I saw Vienna, in person, right at the table behind me. She was the guest performer that night.

So, I had this opportunity to listen to her voice that evening. I only have one word to describe it - Amazing

If you want a few more words, I would say rich, beautiful and rare. She is no doubt a very talented singer. The funny thing is when she doesn't sing, she speaks in a very mature and reassuring tone.

Being the enterprising southeast asian, I took the opportunity to chat with her towards the end of dinner. Off stage, she is pleasant, down to earth and just like you and me. In fact, she easily passed off as a student, blending into the crowd just like a rogue who stealthed into the night unnoticed. You might not even have realized that there is this little celebrity chatting and laughing away among the people.