Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer. His work covers diverse terrain: from thrilling fusions of orchestral and world music, to brooding reinventions of 90s electronica, to award-winning scores for film, video games, and commercials.
His debut album Calling All Dawns won two Grammys at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Classical Crossover Album, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for the song 'Baba Yetu'. Both wins were historic: Calling All Dawns was the last album ever to win the Best Classical Crossover Album category, and 'Baba Yetu' made history as the first piece of music written for a video game ever to be nominated for, or win, a Grammy.
He received his undergraduate education at Stanford University, studying Music Composition, Conducting, and English Literature. After a brief stint as an exchange student at Oxford University, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to continue his studies at the elite Royal College of Music in London--the alma mater of many of the giants of British composition: Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gustav Holst and others. There, he earned an MMus with Distinction, graduating with the highest marks in his class, and winning the Horovitz Composition Prize. He is also a Sundance Institute fellow.
His music has been performed live by many distinguished orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Philharmonia, Metropole Orchestra, and hundreds of amateur ensembles around the world. He is a signed Warner/Chappell songwriter, and his sheet music is published by Alfred Publishing.
In addition to his album work, he is also an active composer of music for films, video games, advertising, and other media. He has won awards for his video game music, for titles such as Civilization IV and Pirates Of The Caribbean Online. He has written music for such Hollywood blockbusters as X2: X-Men United and Lilo And Stitch 2, and a host of independent features, documentaries and TV specials. Major advertising clients include Puma, Verizon, The Gap, and others. (More information on his custom work can be found at his online portfolio, Tin Works.)
His career is also marked by many unusual distinctions; he has both co-created the startup sound for Microsoft's Surface operating system, and a demo song for Apple's Garage Band software, now found on every new Mac computer. His hit song 'Baba Yetu' is both the theme song to the video game Civilization IV, and is also used as a featured segment for the Dubai Fountain, the world's largest choreographed fountain, situated at the base of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper. In recognition for his educational work, the city of Mt. Vernon, IN declared May 4th to be Christopher Tin Day.
Christopher Tin currently lives in Santa Monica, CA.