PRESS RELEASE: Christopher Tin’s ‘Calling All Dawns’ nominated for two GRAMMY Awards
LOS ANGELES (December 2, 2010) - Composer Christopher Tin’s classical/world fusion album ‘Calling All Dawns’ has been nominated for two Grammys: ‘Best Classical Crossover Album’, and ‘Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists’ for his hit song ‘Baba Yetu’. Winners will be announced at the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 13, 2011.
‘Calling All Dawns’ features the collaborative efforts of over 200 musicians from around the world, singing poems and prayers in 12 different languages. Performers include legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, early music singers Anonymous 4, Iranian-born Sussan Deyhim, Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes, Chinese soprano Jia Ruhan, and Japanese pop singers Lia, Aoi Tada and Kaori Omura. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Lucas Richman, performs the orchestral accompaniment. The album was mixed and recorded by Grammy-winning engineer John Kurlander at Abbey Road Studios.
The opening song ‘Baba Yetu (feat. Soweto Gospel Choir)’ is well known to video game aficionados as the theme song to the popular game ‘Civilization IV’. Originally written for the game, it has since become a crossover hit outside of the video game industry, and has received close to 1000 live concert performances both from local and professional choirs, and as a staple of the Video Games Live concert tour. Tin’s nomination marks the first time ever that a piece of music written for a video game has received Grammy recognition. (A full list of nominees can be seen at www.grammy.com/nominees.)
Christopher Tin is primarily a composer for film, video games and advertising. ‘Calling All Dawns’ is his first album.
My toddler loves Baba Yetu. It’s weird, but he reacts almost physically to that number and you can visibly see him relax when he hears “Baba yetu yetu uliye…”. It’s obviously something to do with the African chanting - he also enjoys a lot of the Lion King pieces, though the reaction is less marked.
Seeing the sun rise over the curve of the Earth the first time I started up Civ IV to the sound of Baba Yetu is one of the most memorable gaming moments in my life. I don’t think any other game has ever managed to so completely capture my attention before I even started playing.
Agreed. I had to let the music finish before I could start a game. My wife was captivated by it possibly even more than I was. This is absolutely wonderful.
Agreed. Even my BTS install still reverts to the Civ IV vanilla screen now. I just wish it didn’t give the slightly ugly MOM screen when I load Fall from Heaven though.
