Christopher Tin

Christopher Chiyan Tin (born May 21, 1976) is an American composer of concert music, film, and video game scores. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He has won two Grammy Awards for his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns.

Tin is best known for his choral piece Baba Yetu from the video game Civilization IV, which became the first piece of video game music ever to win a Grammy Award in 2011. His Grammy win was considered a significant milestone for the critical acceptance of music from video games as a legitimate art form, and following his win the Recording Academy retitled their visual media categories to become more inclusive of video game soundtracks.

Christopher Tin was raised in Palo Alto, California to immigrant parents from Hong Kong. He worked on his undergraduate education at Stanford University with a brief period as an exchange student at Oxford, double majoring in Music Composition and English Literature, and minoring in Art History. During this period he supplemented his classical studies by participating in various jazz, musical theatre, and world music student groups. He graduated in 1998, receiving a BA with Honors, and continued to study at Stanford, receiving an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (with an emphasis in film studies) in 1999.

In 1999 he was admitted to the Royal College of Music in London for their MMus in Composition for Screen program, and simultaneously received a Fulbright Scholarship, the first to be awarded for film scoring. There he studied composition with Joseph Horovitz and orchestration with Julian Anderson, as well as conducting with Neil Thomson. He graduated with Distinction, also winning the Joseph Horovitz composition prize as the student with the highest overall marks in his course.

Early career (2000-2005)

While a student at the Royal College of Music, he completed his first commission, the string quartet 'Lacrymosa' for the US Embassy in London. He also found his first professional employment as a staff arranger for Silva Screen Records; his job was to transcribe orchestral film scores (by John Williams, James Horner, John Barry and others) by ear so that they could be re-recorded by live orchestra for album release.

He moved to Los Angeles to 2000 and continued to arrange scores for Silva Screen Records to pay his way while searching for more permanent employment. His first internship was with Hans Zimmer. Subsequently he found freelance work with composers Joel McNeely, who hired him to make synthesized mockups of his film scores for a series of Disney films; and John Ottman, who gave him some incidental music to write on X2: X-Men United. He also worked for record producer Michael Brook, who took him to India on tour as a keyboardist.

In 2003 he participated in the Sundance Institute Film Music Lab where he met jazz pianist Billy Childs, who referred him for his first composing job: scoring a documentary for NY Times Television. This led to a period of modest success writing music for New York-based documentary filmmakers (notably Oscar-nominee Deborah Dickson) and advertising clients (notably Puma).

Baba Yetu (2005)

Tin's biggest break came in 2005, when video game designer Soren Johnson, his former roommate at Stanford, asked him to compose the theme song for Civilization IV. Tin responded with "Baba Yetu", a choral, Swahili version of the Lord's Prayer performed by Stanford Talisman. It has garnered a huge critical response, with over 20 reviewers singling out the theme on IGN, GameSpy, and Game Shark, and is a persistent favorite of blog posts. Tommy Tallarico called it "incredible", and the piece is a staple of his concert tour, Video Games Live. It won Tin two awards at the GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) Awards in 2006.

On December 5, 2010, it was reported that Baba Yetu was nominated for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)" category, making it the first video game theme nominated for a Grammy Award. On February 13, 2011, it was announced as the winner of its category, making it the first piece of music composed for a video game to win a Grammy Award. At the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards, Baba Yetu was the winner in the "Song Used in Film/TV/Multimedia" and "World Beat Song" categories.

Baba Yetu has been performed at various venues and events around the world, including The Dubai Fountain, the Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the New Year's Concert of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Calling All Dawns (2009-2014)

In 2009, Tin released his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns. The album won two Grammys in the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), and was nominated for the 'Contemporary Classical Album' category at the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.

The album is a song-cycle in three uninterrupted movements: Day, Night, and Dawn (corresponding to life, death, and rebirth). The twelve songs are sung in twelve languages, including Swahili, Polish, French, Persian, and Maori. The lyrics are taken from diverse sources, including the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, Persian and Japanese poetry, and lyrics by contemporary writers. Appropriate vocal traditions are used in the performance of each song, and include African choral music, opera, medieval chants, and Irish keening.

The album features performances from over 200 musicians on six continents, including Frederica von Stade, Anonymous 4, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Dulce Pontes, and Sussan Deyhim. It was never intended to be performed live, as Tin believed that a single choir would balk at the idea of learning the 12 languages. However, despite the challenge, many groups have performed the entire album in concert.

The Drop That Contained the Sea (2014-2016)

Christopher Tin's second song cycle, titled The Drop That Contained the Sea, premiered at Carnegie Hall on April 13, 2014. It was performed by a chorus made up of several choral groups from around the United States, Canada, and England, as part of a concert produced by Distinguished Concerts International New York. The album's presale began on April 13, and it was released on May 8, 2014. It consists of ten songs, each sung in a different language, beginning with Proto-Indo-European and including Bulgarian, Turkish, Mongolian, Xhosa, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. The song cycle follows the Water Cycle much like Calling All Dawns followed the day and night cycle.

Sogno di Volare (2016)

On June 19, 2016 the Cadogan Hall in London held a concert conducted by Christopher Tin himself with the participation of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Angel City Chorale, Lucis and Prima Vocal Ensemble. As part of the repertory, during the concert the piece of music "Sogno di Volare" ("Dream of Flight" in Italian) was unveiled and performed for the first time. This song stands as the main theme of Civilization VI video-game, being the second time the composer gets involved in the series after the enormous success of Grammy-winning song Baba Yetu for Civilization IV in 2005.

In 2009, Christopher Tin and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shoji Kameda formed a Los Angeles-based production duo, Stereo Alchemy. Their debut album, God of Love, was released February 14, 2012.

GRAMMY Awards

Songwriting Awards

Video Game Industry Awards

Tin's works include both concert pieces and incidental music for films, TV shows, video games, commercials, and other multimedia applications. His works, scores and clients include:

Albums

• Calling All Dawns (debut 2009 album), recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Soweto Gospel Choir, Lia, Aoi Tada, Kaori Omura (大村香織), Jia Ruhan, Dulce Pontes, Anonymous 4, Frederica von Stade, Sussan Deyhim, Stanford Talisman, and On Ensemble.
• The Drop That Contained the Sea (2014 album)

Film music

• X2: X-Men United
• Lilo and Stitch 2
• Dante's Inferno

Video game music

• Civilization IV – Baba Yetu
• Offworld Trading Company (Soundtrack)
• Civilization VI – Sogno di Volare

Music for online projects

• Pixar's Cars Online
• Pirates of the Caribbean Online
• Pocket God
• Civilization game Online

Music for commercials and software

• Apple
• Puma SE
• Microsoft
• Nokia
• Verizon
• Morgan Stanley
• Guess
• The Gap

Music for television

• PBS
• Discovery Channel
• History Channel
• New York Times Television