seven venues

Over the next couple years,

Vienna Teng will be working

to balance her successful fulltime

career as a singer-songwriter

with the full-time pursuit

of a master’s degree.

Teng begins her studies toward

a master of business administration

in sustainable enterprise

at the University of

Michigan this fall. But first,

she brings her piano-based act,

which has drawn comparisons

to Rufus Wainwright and Tori

Amos, to the Attucks Theatre

in Norfolk on Saturday.

At the time of our phone interview,

Teng was on the Michigan

campus to get ready for

the coming semester. She says

she’s “really looking forward

to a reason to stay put for a little

bit.”

Teng has actually been balancing

an academic career

with music since her early

days at Stanford University.

Before graduating from Stanford

with a degree in computer

science in 2000, Teng (real

name: Cynthia Yih Shih), performed

with a student-run

a cappella group and recorded

music for her first CD, 2002’s

“Waking Hour.” Even then, she

showed an interest in building

a dual career as a singer and

environmentalist.

“As much as I love music and

being a creative artist, I’ve

also cared a lot about sustainability

issues for a long time,”

Teng said. “It’s something that

I’ve tried to incorporate in the

way that we tour and the materials

I use to release my CDs

and so on.”

So Teng’s current international

tour, in support of her

fourth studio album, 2009’s

Rounder-released “Inland Territory,”

may indeed be her last

for a while. She acknowledges

that the rigors of her academic

studies will limit her touring

schedule as well as any new

musical output. But for now,

she’s focused on her upcoming

concert date in Hampton

Roads, where she’ll be joined

by frequent collaborators Alex

Wong and Ward Williams. She

says her shows are ideal for

people with short attention

spans.

“I actually have a very short

attention span when it comes

to concerts,” she says with a

chuckle. “I tend to get distracted

if something is the same for

more than three songs in a row.

We try to play to someone with

that attention span.”