Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin has released a new album titled 'To Shiver the Sky' which marks Tin's major label debut after signing to Decca Gold.  To Shiver the Sky, is "an oratorio about the history of flight, and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," explains Tin. The ambitious 11-track album will also mirror that story with the parallel evolution of Western classical music. Tin ultimately settled on eleven historical figures which are "our greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots," he details. Each of whom serve as the basis for a composition, adding up to a kaleidoscopic epic that crosses centuries, continents, and perspectives.  The first single Sogno di Volare ("The Dream of Flight") is a new recording of Tin's beloved theme to the popular game Civilization VI, a choral setting of Leonardo da Vinci's writings on flight. "The inspirational main theme serves as a recurring motif throughout the album, periodically returning after moments of darkness and despair," recalls Tin.  Tin talks with 89.7WCPE - Wake Forest NC about the album. Listen to thr attached interview

Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin released his new album 'To Shiver the Sky' last summer. It marks Tin's major label debut after signing to Decca Gold.  To Shiver the Sky, is "an oratorio about the history of flight, and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," explains Tin. The ambitious 11-track album will also mirror that story with the parallel evolution of Western classical music. Tin ultimately settled on eleven historical figures which are "our greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots," he details. Each of whom serve as the basis for a composition, adding up to a kaleidoscopic epic that crosses centuries, continents, and perspectives.  The history of aviation is full of outlandish tales and colorful figures. PRX: The World's April Peavy discusses the project with the Califormia based composer.  LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

The history of flight is full of trial errors; from the stories of Daedalus and Icarus planning escape with wax and feathers, to The Wright Brothers' first successful airplane, human flight has been a dream for humanity for many years. That's what composer Christopher Tin's latest album, To Shiver the Sky, is all about. An "oratorio about the history of flight and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," ...Sky tells a story of the evolution of this quest for flight, to reach higher than the earthbound. Throughout this album (featuring guest artists such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Opera Chorus, Danielle de Niese and more), the evolution of flight is paired with the evolution of Western classical music. The album's story is told through the perspective of eleven historical figures, a "who's who" of "astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots." Classiclectic host Kurt Hauswirth spoke with Christopher about his album, and how it relates to humanity's efforts to keep trying, even through adversity. LISTEN TO THE PublicRadio90: Classiclectic Connection INTERVIEW

The American composer Christopher Tin is one of today's most innovative and influential composers. His compositions for film, video games and the concert stage have won him 2 Grammy Awards, and a whole plethora of song writing and video game awards. The music that he composed for the video game Civilization IV has the honor of being the first music written for a video game to win a Grammy Award, which was won in 2011. Christopher Tin's music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln center, and the Hollywood Bowl, and been performed by ensembles throughout the world. This year his latest project, "To Shiver the Sky," an oratorio completely devoted to the wonder of flight was released on recording, and has since gone on to reach the positon of No.1 on the US Top Classical Crossover Albums for Billboard. Earlier this week Intermezzo host Chris Wolf had the pleasure of talking with Christopher Tin about his new Oratorio "To Shiver the Sky."  READ THE FULL Winnipeg 107 ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEO

Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin has released a new album titled; 'To Shiver the Sky.' This album marks Tin's major label debut after signing to Decca Gold.  To Shiver the Sky, is "an oratorio about the history of flight, and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," explains Tin. The ambitious 11-track album will also mirror that story with the parallel evolution of Western classical music. Tin ultimately settled on eleven historical figures which are "our greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots," he details. Each of whom serve as the basis for a composition, adding up to a kaleidoscopic epic that crosses centuries, continents, and perspectives.  Christopher Tin spoke with 89.1WMHT: Schenectady's Rob brown about this new work, performed in 8 languages. LISTEN

If you're familiar with composer Christopher Tin, it may be because he made history as the first composer to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game. "The song that I wrote a Grammy for is called Baba Yetu, and it's actually a choral setting of the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. And it was originally written for the video game Civilization IV which is a very legendary franchise in the gaming world. In 2009, I rerecorded the song and released it on my debut album, Calling All Dawns. So six years after the song was brought to the world - in this form of a video game theme - is when it was finally honored as as a Grammy winning song." The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was featured on that Grammy-winning song, and they're collaborating with Christopher once again on his latest solo recording, To Shiver the Sky. It's a grand production featuring three choir and two opera stars: soprano Danielle de Niese and tenor Pene Pati. "I had an idea early on that I wanted to do an oratorio based on the history of mankind's quest to fly. The history of aviation, from Da Vinci's notebooks and the legend of Daedalus and Icarus all the way through John F. Kennedy declaring that we would be putting a man on the moon by the decade's end. And this started because, once again, I had written a theme song for a video game. In this case, it was Civilization VI. And that song became a bit of a hit. And so I took that song, repackaged it, rerecorded it, wrote 10 other movements around it, and found a way to basically tell the story of aviation through the words of those who actually helped propel it forward. The piece that was the origin for this oratorio was called Sogno di Volare and it was from the video game Civilization VI and it's the first track on the new oratorio. And it's also the main theme in that it's a recurring musical motif that comes back again and again across the course of the album. Anytime humanity suffers defeat or failure or setbacks, the dream of flight theme comes back and summons us back to that cockpit, back on our feet to to try to push forward to achieve our dream of flying." One of the pieces that really caught my ear was Astronomy. It starts quietly, in polish with words by Capernicus. It's also kind of comforting, too. "It was in this sort of spirit of comfort, of beholding the beauty of the cosmos and sort of reveling in it, that I thought, I want this particular piece to sound. I want it to sound peaceful and calm and tranquil, but give you the impression that you are gazing at the stars and the splendor of the universe. If you were actually to look at the sheet music, I have actually drawn in - using notes played by the orchestra - the various constellations that relate to flight. So, Phoenix, Draco the dragon, Cygnus, the Swan... If you were to draw lines between the note heads on the conductor score, and we actually even created a little video that's on my YouTube channel to show just where these constellations just sort of magically appear in the music. READ THE FULL New Classical Tracks TRANSCRIPT & LISTEN TO THE FEATURE

Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin has released a new album titled 'To Shiver the Sky' which marks Tin's major label debut after signing to Decca Gold.  To Shiver the Sky, is "an oratorio about the history of flight, and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," explains Tin. The ambitious 11-track album will also mirror that story with the parallel evolution of Western classical music. Tin ultimately settled on eleven historical figures which are "our greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots," he details. Each of whom serve as the basis for a composition, adding up to a kaleidoscopic epic that crosses centuries, continents, and perspectives.  The first single Sogno di Volare ("The Dream of Flight") is a new recording of Tin's beloved theme to the popular game Civilization VI, a choral setting of Leonardo da Vinci's writings on flight. "The inspirational main theme serves as a recurring motif throughout the album, periodically returning after moments of darkness and despair," recalls Tin.  Tin talks with 89.3WQED-FM - Pittsburgh about the album, collaborating with the Royal Philharmonic and the Royal Opera Chorus, his career in composition, and more. LISTEN

Explore space through sound with the US Air Force Band and Washington Performing Arts. Hear the Amelia Earhart-inspired piece "Courage" from conductor Christopher Tin's To Shiver the Sky and watch interviews with NASA experts. The virtual event will also include a live interview with Tin and WPA head Jenny Bilfield. Saturday 8/29 at 7 PM; Free Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin released his new album titled To Shiver the Sky on August 21 via Decca Gold.  To Shiver the Sky, is "an oratorio about the history of flight, and mankind's quest to conquer the heavens," explains Tin. The ambitious 11-track album will also mirror that story with the parallel evolution of Western classical music. Tin ultimately settled on eleven historical figures which are "our greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries and pilots," he details. Each of whom serve as the basis for a composition, adding up to a kaleidoscopic epic that crosses centuries, continents, and perspectives.  READ THE FULL Washingtonian ARTICLE

Due to popular demand, Christopher Tin, the two-time Grammy Award winner, will conduct his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns. Presented by DCINY last year at Carnegie Hall, DCINY is bringing Tin's concert to David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center this season on March 27. Tin, who is a DCINY composer-in-residence, will lead the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and the Distinguished Concerts Singers International, consisting of 26 choirs from around the world. Featured soloists are DeAnna Choi, Soprano; Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Mezzo-Soprano; Michael O., Tenor, and Jerome Kavanagh, Maori chanter. READ THE FULL BroadwayWorld ARTICLE

Music should be "the hammer that breaks down cultural barriers" in an age of rising populism and protectionism, Chinese American producer Christopher Tin, a two-time Grammy Award winner, has said. California-born Tin conducted his debut concert at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan on Sunday. The event was presented by the Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). The DCINY composer-in-residence led a mass choir of singers performing his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns with a full orchestra. "The message in all of my music, and this concert in particular, is one of the beauty of cultural and linguistic diversity," said Tin in an interview with Xinhua. "The message is that despite our differences in language, culture, and skin color, we're still connected by common human experiences. The work that I performed, Calling All Dawns, is sung in twelve different languages: including Mandarin, Polish, Farsi, Hebrew, and more. All the songs relate to life, death, and rebirth," he added.
(Photo credit: Dan Wright Photography/DCINY Productions) READ THE FULL New China ARTICLE

Christopher Tin, the two-time Grammy Award winner is making his Carnegie Hall conducting debut  on June 9 with the presentation of his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns. Presented by DCINY, Tin, the DCINY composer-in-residence, will be leading a mass choir of singers performing Calling All Dawns with a full orchestra. Featured soloists are Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Mezzo-Soprano, Michael Odokara-Okigbo (Michael O.), Tenor, Camille Brault, Mezzo-Soprano, Holly Sedillos, Soprano, and Deanna Choi, Soprano. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL BroadwayWorld ARTICLE

Legendary Taiwanese diva Teresa Teng is going through a revival, after blockbuster flick Crazy Rich Asians used a big band cover of her classic melody "When Will You Return" (also known as "Waiting For Your Return") to open the movie.  Composer Christopher Tin, who adapted the song for the film, tells Inkstone about remaking a classic, and explains why Crazy Rich Asians has finally given the Asian community a voice in Hollywood. WATCH THE inkstone VIDEO p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

In his 15 years as one of the leading artists in electronic music, Australian songwriter, composer, record producer and DJ tyDi, has recorded five full-length albums, countless singles, remixes, and EPs that have topped global charts. On his new album - Collide, tyDi enlisted 2x GRAMMY award winning composer and seasoned vet Christopher Tin to help bring Collide to the masses. Best known for his composing and scoring work across the concert music, film and video game industries, Tin has won multiple awards and accolades: In 2011, his choral piece Baba Yetu from the video game Civilization IV became the first piece of video game music to ever win a Grammy Award, while his album Calling All Dawns took home a second Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album that same year. "To make my dream album, I needed someone experienced who was a king in the composing world," says tyDi of his collaboration with Tin. "This is the type of composition you can only get from an entire orchestra, and I owe so much to Christopher." For tyDi, it all now comes full circle on Collide, his most ambitious and most challenging project to date. READ THE VENTS Q&A with tyDi

On the surface, the relationship between video games and music seems to be a straightforward one. One of the integral features that makes a well-written, mechanically strong video game into a masterpiece is music. On the flip side, video games benefits in the music industry in many ways too. Then there are the unique examples such as Youtuber Dan Bull, who makes fantastic songs about video games, which have then been used by video game developers in order to market their games. These creative back and forth relationships are rare but are an excellent example of how a sort of coevolution can develop between the video game and music industries. One of the integral features that makes a well-written, mechanically strong video game into a masterpiece is music. So if these links are so prominent and so beneficial for both sides, why has the music industry made frustratingly difficult for these links to be maintained, cultivated further and celebrated? The music industry seems to specifically ignore the valuable contributions video games makes to it and you can see this in the Grammys. First off, let's talk about the fact that until 2011, video games were not eligible to be nominated for any category. Even with the allowing of video games to be nominated into the Grammys there has been a significant handicap attached to them. They have to compete in the Visual Media categories. This is an important issue because they have to go up against blockbuster film scores, which have more money and more reach than individual game soundtracks, in order to even be considered for the award. This fact is the major contributor to why video game music has only ever been nominated twice for an award. The first was Christopher Tin's ‘Baba Yetu', which is the legendary piece of music recorded for Civilisation IV. This actually won the award for ‘Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)' in 2010, but only 6 years after the song was first released in Civilisation IV and because it was re-recorded which technically made it applicable to be nominated. The other nomination is from Austin Wintory, who composed the breath-taking soundtrack to the 2012 mega hit Journey, in which he was nominated for the ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media' along side the titans of the movie music industry John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Personally, I don't think that a particularly fair fight, and this highlights how great video game can be completely overshadowed because the music industry refuses to acknowledge gaming's individual contribution. READ THE FULL Boar ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

DOUBLE Grammy Award winner Christopher Tin will conduct the European premiere of his majestic work The Drop That Contained The Sea at York Barbican on Saturday night. The 200 voices of Prima Vocal Ensemble, from York, and Angel City Chorale, from Los Angeles, will be accompanied by the Mowbray Orchestra, joined on stage by yet-to-be-confirmed international soloists and York singer Alistair McQueen, who has been chosen to perform Tin's ground-breaking piece, Baba Yetu. The York premiere reunites the two choirs for the first time since the sold-out world premiere of The Drop at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 2014. In addition to the main event, Christopher Tin will host a pre-concert talk from 6pm: a chance to ask the American composer questions about his life, music and accolades, from his Grammys to his John Lennon songwriting award and Horovitz prize. Admission to this intimate session is free but spaces must be pre-booked by emailing prima@gemmusic.co.uk with numbers. READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The second album from two-time GrammyTM Award-winning composer Christopher Tin, entitled The Drop that Contained the Sea, has entered the Billboard Classical Traditional Charts at #1 after its first week of release.  The ten-part song-cycle explores the theme of water in its different forms, with vocal performances by fellow GrammyTM Award-winners the Soweto Gospel Choir and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, as well as early music superstars Anonymous 4, Mongolian pop starNominjin, world-renowned fadista Dulce Pontes, GrammyTM-nominated choir Schola Cantorum and more.

The recording follows Tin's debut album Calling All Dawns, which won the GrammyTM for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2011 and contained the hugely popular song "Baba Yetu," which was the theme song for video game Civilization IV and won a GrammyTM for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists (the first piece of video game music to win a GrammyTM). SEE THE FULL Dirty Dog LIST FOR August 2015  

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/14/civilization-4-grammy-baba-yetu/
Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu," otherwise known as "that Civilization IV song that won't get out of your head," won a Grammy for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" at the 53rd annual music awards. The track, which is the first piece of video game music nominated for a little gramophone, was recognized so many years later because it was the opening track on composer Christopher Tin's debut album, Calling All Dawns, which also won a Grammy for "Best Classical Crossover Album."

Tin's "Baby Yetu" has been a mainstay of Video Games Live for several years and can be seen performed live on the show's DVD/Blu-ray (and on the YouTubes). "We're so proud of Christopher's Grammy Award victory and what he has accomplished," said Video Games Live CEO Tommy Tallarico in a statement this morning. "This historic moment will continue to bridge the gap between mainstream music and video games. It is an honor to perform his music in our show." http://www.lazygamer.net/soweto-gospel-choir-won-a-grammy-why-do-we-care/