Christopher Tin
American composer, conductor, arranger and record producer Christopher Chiyan Tin was born in Redwood City, California on 21 May 1976 to parents from Hong Kong. He grew up in Palo Alto, California, and studied at Stanford University and then at the Royal College of Music in London, UK, where he studied composition with Joseph Horovitz, orchestration with Julian Anderson and conducting with Neil Thomson, and received his first commission, a string quartet Lacrymosa for the US Embassy in London.
His first job was as a staff arranger for Silva Screen Records in London. He moved to Los Angeles in 2000, continued to work for Silva Screen Records and began to diversify, working for Hans Zimmer, Joel McNeely, John Ottman and Michael Brook.
In 2005, Soren Johnson, his former room mate at Stanford, asked Tin to compose the theme song for the video game Civilization IV, and Tin responded with Baba Yetu, a choral version of the Lord's Prayer sung in Swahili. The work achieved huge popularity outside of the video game industry.
In 2009 Tin released the classical crossover album Calling All Dawns - a song cycle in three uninterrupted movements - 'Day', representing life, 'Night', representing death, and 'Dawn', representing rebirth, with lyrics from diverse sources in twelve different languages. Although Tin hadn't intended the music to be performed live, it has been performed many times, including by Distinguished Concerts International New York and by Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.
This led to further albums, The Drop That Contained the Sea (2014-16), To Shiver the Sky (2020) and The Lost Birds (2022).
Further information: christophertin.com