Christopher Tin
Christopher Chiyan Tin is an American composer of art music, composing for film, television, and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He is a two-time Grammy Award winner.
Tin is best known for his work on title themes for the Civilization video game series, specifically the main theme "Baba Yetu" from the video game Civilization IV, which, at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011, became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award. This Grammy win has been considered a significant milestone for the critical acceptance of music from video games, and following this win the Recording Academy retitled their visual media categories to become more inclusive of video game soundtracks, before eventually creating a dedicated Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media in 2022.
Early life and education
Tin was born May 21, 1976 in Palo Alto, California to immigrant parents from Hong Kong. He attended Stanford University, and had a brief period as an exchange student at the University of Oxford. He double majored in music composition and English literature, and minored in art history. In his time at university, he supplemented his studies by participating in various jazz, musical theatre, and world music student groups. Tin graduated in 1998, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors, and continued to study at Stanford, receiving a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, with an emphasis in film studies, in 1999.In 1999, Tin was admitted to the Royal College of Music's Master of Music in Composition for Screen program, and simultaneously received a Fulbright Scholarship, which was the first to be awarded for film scoring. There, he studied composition with Joseph Horovitz, orchestration with Julian Anderson, and conducting with Neil Thomson. He graduated with Distinction and won the Joseph Horovitz composition prize as the student with the highest overall marks in his course.
Career
Early career (2000–2005)
While a student at the Royal College of Music, Tin completed his first commission, the string quartet Lacrymosa, for the U.S. Embassy in London. Tin found his first professional employment as a staff arranger for Silva Screen Records, where his job was to transcribe orchestral film scores by ear so they could be rerecorded by live orchestra for album release.In 2000, Tin moved to Los Angeles and continued to arrange scores for Silva Screen Records while searching for more permanent employment. His first internship was with Hans Zimmer. Tin 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 incidental music to write for X2: X-Men United. He also worked for record producer Michael Brook, who took him to India on tour as a keyboardist.
In 2003, Tin participated in the Sundance Institute Film Music Lab, where he met jazz pianist Billy Childs. Childs referred Tin for his first composing job, which was scoring a documentary for New York Times Television. This led to a period of writing music for New York-based documentary filmmakers and advertising clients.
''Baba Yetu'' (2005)
Tin's biggest break came in 2005, when video game designer Soren Johnson, Tin's former roommate at Stanford, asked him to compose the theme song for Civilization IV. In response, Tin composed "Baba Yetu" for the main theme, a choral, Swahili version of the Lord's Prayer recorded by his former a cappella group, Stanford Talisman. The song was widely praised, with over 20 reviewers of the game singling out the theme on game review websites such as IGN and GameSpy. The song's first live performance was on September 21, 2006, at the Hollywood Bowl as part of a Video Games Live concert, where it featured Stanford Talisman and was conducted by Jack Wall."Baba Yetu" has achieved popularity outside the video game industry, being performed at various venues and events around the world. Some venues have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and the Dubai Fountain. It has also been performed during multiple events at the United Nations. On August 6, 2019, it was played at the signing of the Maputo Accord, which brought an end to the RENAMO insurgency in Mozambique.
Many notable ensembles have performed "Baba Yetu", including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, National Symphony Orchestra, and the US Navy Band. Various YouTube artists, including Peter Hollens, Maytree, and Alex Boye and the BYU Men's Chorus have also performed the song. It is a popular competition piece, as in 2014 the Welsh choir Côr CF1 won BBC Radio 3's Choir of the Year with their performance, and in 2018 two separate contestants competed with "Baba Yetu" on the same season of America's Got Talent, being the Angel City Chorale, who were awarded the Golden Buzzer by Olivia Munn, and Zurcaroh, who reached the finals with an acrobatic dance performance to the song. It was also featured on the TV show Jeopardy!, with the clue "Choir staple 'Baba Yetu' means "Our Father" in Swahili and is basically this prayer."
"Baba Yetu" is 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. Additionally, it won Tin two Game Audio Network Guild Awards in 2006, as well as winning him two awards in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. 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 is a song-cycle in three uninterrupted movements: Day, Night, and Dawn. 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 gospel, Beijing opera, medieval chants, and Irish keening.The album won two Grammys in the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist for the song "Baba Yetu", and was nominated for the 'Contemporary Classical Album' category at the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. It features performances by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Soweto Gospel Choir, Lia, Aoi Tada, Kaori Omura, Jia Ruhan, Dulce Pontes, Anonymous 4, Frederica von Stade, Sussan Deyhim, Stanford Talisman, and On Ensemble.
Tin had never intended the work to be performed live, however, many ensembles have performed it in this manner. The first concert was given by Derek Machan and the Waterford Union High School chorus in Waterford, Wisconsin. Subsequently, on April 7, 2013, New York-based concert promoters Distinguished Concerts International New York did the first of multiple large-scale productions at the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, conducted by Jonathan Griffith and featuring original album artists Anonymous 4, Ron Ragin, Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Roopa Mahadevan. On July 19, 2016, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed excerpts with the combined Angel City Chorale, Prima Vocal Ensemble and Lucis choirs at Cadogan Hall in London. On July 5, 2017, at the 70th Anniversary of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, Tin himself conducted the entire work with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and a group of international soloists, including Elin Manahan Thomas, Nathalie Pires, Joel Virgel, and Nominjin, and a mass choir made up of singers from Wales, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States. The concert was filmed and subsequently broadcast on Welsh television station S4C.
''The Drop That Contained the Sea'' (2014–2016)
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.