Christopher Tin

Early life and education

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 in 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 recorded by his former a cappella group Stanford Talisman. The song garnered a huge critical response, with over 20 reviewers of the game singling out the theme on IGN, GameSpy, and others, and became a persistent favorite of blog posts. Video game music personality Tommy Tallarico called it "incredible", and made the piece a staple of his concert tour Video Games Live. The world premiere of the song took place at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Stanford Talisman, conducted by Jack Wall.

Baba Yetu has achieved enormous popularity outside of the video game industry, and been performed live at various venues and events around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, The Dubai Fountain, and the New Year's Concert of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly.. Notable ensembles that have performed the song include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, National Symphony Orchestra, US Navy Band, and various YouTube artists, including Peter Hollens, Alex Boye and the BYU Men's Choir.

It is also one of the most decorated pieces of video game music, holding the distinction of being the first piece of music written for a video game to be both nominated for, and win, a Grammy Award (at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)" category). Additionally it won Tin two awards at the GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) Awards in 2006, as well as two awards in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards ("Best Song Used in Film/TV/Multimedia" and "Best World Beat Song"). It also entered Tin into the Guinness Book of World Records as the composer of the first video game theme to win a Grammy Award.

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 album, titled The Drop That Contained the Sea, premiered live at Carnegie Hall on April 13, 2014. It was performed by a combined chorus of multiple singing groups from around the United States, Canada, and England, as part of an all-Tin concert produced by Distinguished Concerts International New York. 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.

The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with Tin conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and features guest performances by the Soweto Gospel Choir, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Kardeş Türküler, Dulce Pontes, Nominjin, Roopa Mahadevan, Anonymous 4, the Angel City Chorale, and Norwegian chamber choir Schola Cantorum. Upon release, it achieved #1 status on the Billboard Classical Charts.

Tin centered his first tour around the work, conducting it in three cities in the UK. The European premiere was given on July 16, 2016 at the Barbican in York, with the Mowbray Orchestra and combined Angel City Chorale and Prima Vocal Ensemble choirs, followed by concerts at the Harrogate Music Festival, and in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

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, marking the second time the composer has been involved in the series after the enormous success of the Grammy-winning song Baba Yetu for Civilization IV in 2005.

Collaborative projects

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.

Works

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

Film music

Video game music

Music for online projects

Music for commercials and software

Music for television