Poh Teng is a percussionist/drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. He began as a classically trained percussionist and was awarded the Anne & Gordon Getty scholarship to attend California State University East Bay where he earned his BA in Music Performance in percussion. Teng is genre crossing and has performed in a wide range of settings from being featured a soloist playing percussion concertos to sideman set drummer covering multiple styles. While coming up as a younger player, Teng was hungry and took pretty much any and every gig he could and thus teaching him that versatility was important for this career path to work. This has led to many learning opportunities playing musical theatre, orchestras, operas, jazz, songwriters, rock bands, etc.

Being a classically trained player though, he made it a point to hang out at jazz jam sessions around the San Francisco Bay Area multiple times a week to learn as much as he could to make up for lost time being a late starter in the drumset world. Teng was fortunate enough to fall into amazing circles of musicians and even greater human beings whom many became friends and mentors and teachers. It has definitely helped shape him to the person he has been today. 

In recent years, Teng has had the privilege to play at some pretty notable venues across the country such as SF Jazz, Yoshi’s, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Hamilton Live DC, Nectars, Muzikfest, Rockwood Music Hall, Purple Fiddle, Grey Eagle, etc… to name a few. Teng has also had the privilege to work with many local bay area musicians; Kevan Smedt, Brian Ho, Sitka Sun including legends like Calvin Keys and John Shifflet. On the east coast he has worked with the likes of Peter Edelman, Elijah Balbed, Conor & The Wild Hunt, etc. Once again, genre crossing is the theme here as that’s a range from jazz to Americana to Afro Brazillian fusion.

When not on the road, Teng is currently staying busy freelancing playing local shows and doing session work.

Teng proudly endorses : 

Seth Dolcourt Custom Drums