Danielle Walczak

Staff Writer

Christopher Tin has worked for both Apple and Microsoft throughout his time as a commercial composer — a contrast indicative of Tin’s wide variety of musical talents which have lead him to compose anything from symphonies to music for Verizon commercials.

Music director and conductor of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra Lucas Richman interviewed Tin in Minsky Recital Hall on Friday afternoon for a group of young composers and enthusiasts of Tin’s music. Tin’s appearance is part of his residency with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will debut Tin’s newest composition: Journeys with vocal quartet Anonymous 4 on Sunday at the Collins Center for the Arts.

Tin, who studied at Stanford University and the Royal College of Music in London, has made music for the movie “X-Men 2” and the popular video game “Civilizations 4.” His song “Baba Yetu” from the introduction of “Civilizations” jump-started his debut album, “Calling All Dawns.” The album later won two Grammy Awards.

“The decision to make a CD was largely based on this idea that I needed an artistic project that was solely my own,” Tin said.

Baba Yetu was a big hit in the gamer world. His song, which features the African choir, Soweto Gospel Choir, now plays at the Fountains of Dubai. This connection happened largely because the president of the company who created the fountains, Wet Design, loves “Civilizations.”

“You never know who’s a gamer out there,” Tin said with a laugh.

For Tin making connections in the industry and having a variety of different musical talents has lead him to success.

Tin’s college roommate at Stanford worked on “Civilizations” and hired him to compose the song for the game. Yet after his success in the game he didn’t want his album to be just African music.

“Let’s not be that African music guy, let’s not get pigeonholed because the music industry loves to do that. I thought let’s be the world music guy,” said Tin, who then created “Calling All Dawns,” which emulates the cycle from dawn to night.

Each track on the album is written in a different language, which brought Tin from places like Johannesburg, South Africa to Turkey.

“All my life I’ve always been involved in a lot of different types of music,” said Tin.

For Tin it is important to incorporate realistic cultural influences in his music. Tin’s Journeys, premiering on Sunday, focuses on the ancient Greek language. Using the vocal quartet Anonymous 4 he emulates the Sirens call from “The Odyssey.” The actual text from Homer’s Epic poem is used in his vocals.

Tin hopes to release his sophomore album in April and also is working on another video game song, which is top secret.

I feel fortunate in that I’ve had to meet a lot of different creative demands over the years, all of which have fed into my style of composing,” said Tin in an interview with the Maine Campus before his talk. “When working on games, films, and commercials, one day I might be writing a bossa nova, the next I might be writing a jazz arrangement. I like to think that I survey the tools of a lot of different genres and mediums, adopt those techniques, which I think can help me, and grow my style based on all these influences.”