Chromatica Chorale, a popular chorus founded in Danville, CA in 2011, is proud to announce that it has commissioned a major new choral and instrumental suite in six movements by Christopher Tin with lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri, titled Transfigurations. It will receive its world premiere performance on April 27, 2024, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek CA.
Christopher Tin is a multiple Grammy winning composer with several additional Grammy nominations. Primarily an orchestral and choral composer, he won his first two Grammys for his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns. His choral piece Baba Yetu, from the video game Civilization IV, became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award. His subsequent composition, Sogno di Volare, from Civilization VI, was performed by Chromatica at its recent concert. Tin has won multiple video game industry and songwriting awards. His 2022 classical compendium The Lost Birds debuted at number two on the Billboard Classical Charts as well as receiving another Grammy nomination. It has received millions of listens across streaming platforms. Tin is currently completing a final act for Turandot, an opera that Puccini was unable to finish. It will have its world premiere with the Washington National Opera in May 2024.
Charles Anthony Silvestri is a poet, lyricist and composer. He is the author of more than fifty published works in collaboration with celebrated composers such as Eric Whitacre, Dan Forrest, Ola Gjeilo, and Kim Arnesen, and for groups such as the King's Singers, VOCES8, San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the Tallis Scholars, Westminster College Choir, the Turtle Creek Chorale, and the Houston Grand Opera.
The Transfigurations commission was funded by former Chromatica singers, Dan Peterson and his late wife Maria, to whom it is dedicated. Dan provided his own reflections on his life experiences to Silvestri, and they formed the starting point for Transfiguration’s lyrics. Chromatica is very grateful to Dan and Maria Peterson for this extraordinary gift.
"I'm very honored to be able to work with Chromatica” said Christopher Tin. “I was born and raised in the Bay Area, so getting the opportunity to work with a group so close to my hometown will be a treat. Charles Anthony Silvestri has delivered a truly thought-provoking suite of poems that I've diligently set to music, and I'm looking forward to working with the choir to transform them from mere notes on a page to a transcendent concert experience."
“It has been Chromatica’s dream since its foundation 12 years ago to commission and perform major choral works well outside the normal repertoire for community choruses” said David Huff, founding artistic director. “It was far beyond our expectations to be able to work with such remarkable composers and lyricists as Christopher Tin and Tony Silvestri. While this will be our third world premiere, it is certainly the most significant and marks a major milestone in Chromatica’s development. Together with the whole of Chromatica, I am enormously excited to bring this work to the public for the first time and hugely grateful to Dan and Maria Peterson for making this possible.”
Transfigurations includes six movements that focus on the transfiguration of life into light, of life into dust, of gender, of the son of God, and the transfiguration of the soul. Accompanied by piano, bass, cello and oboe, Transfigurations will comprise half of the April 27 world premiere concert.
Christopher Tin: https://christophertin.com/
Charles Anthony Silvestri: https://www.charlesanthonysilvestri.com/
Chromatica Chorale was founded in 2011 and now includes 35 men and women singers. It has performed 20 prior series of ticketed concerts in the East Bay, attracting large and enthusiastic audiences. Led by David Huff, an outstanding director and operatic tenor who has sung both in New York and San Francisco and accompanied by the exceptional pianist and assistant director, Julie Rieth, it seeks to perform challenging pieces at a high level of professionalism. www.Chromaticachorale.org.