Transfigurations - Spring 2024
With music by Christopher Tin, lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri
Saturday April 27th, 7:00pm & Sunday April 28th, 4:00pm
St. Matthew Lutheran Church
Walnut Creek, CA
On the final weekend of April 2024, Chromatica Chorale made history with the world premiere of Transfigurations — a major new choral work by two-time Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin, with lyrics by acclaimed poet and librettist Charles Anthony Silvestri. Performed at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, the two concerts marked a landmark moment for the ensemble and for new choral music.
Christopher Tin is best known as the composer of "Baba Yetu," the theme from Sid Meier's Civilization IV, which became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award. A Bay Area native, Tin has built a career bridging classical composition and popular culture, with works performed by orchestras and choirs worldwide. His connection to the region made this collaboration with Chromatica especially meaningful.
“What excited me most about this project was writing for a community chorus — these are people who sing because they love it, and that passion comes through in every note.”
— Christopher Tin, Composer
Transfigurations was commissioned by Dan Peterson in memory of his late wife Maria, a beloved member of the Chromatica community. The commission gave Tin and Silvestri the freedom to explore the concept of transfiguration across six movements — examining how life transforms into light, dust, gender, the divine, and ultimately the soul. The result is a work of remarkable scope and emotional depth, moving from hushed introspection to moments of overwhelming radiance.
Charles Anthony Silvestri, whose texts have been set by composers including Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo, crafted lyrics that move between the intimate and the cosmic. Each movement takes up a different facet of transfiguration — the metamorphosis of the physical into the spiritual, the earthly into the eternal. Silvestri's words gave Tin a rich foundation for music that is by turns tender, dramatic, and transcendent.
The ensemble was accompanied by piano, bass, cello, and oboe, lending the work a chamber-music intimacy that complemented the choir's dynamic range. Music Director David Huff led months of intensive rehearsal to prepare the singers for the demands of Tin's rhythmically intricate and harmonically adventurous score.
“Premiering a work of this caliber is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a community chorus. Our singers rose to the occasion in a way that moved everyone in the room — including the composer.”
— David Huff, Music Director
The premiere drew an enthusiastic audience across both performances, with Christopher Tin and Charles Anthony Silvestri in attendance. The concerts stand as a testament to what a dedicated community ensemble can achieve — and to the power of new music to honor, transform, and illuminate.
Program
- Tin — Transfigurations: I. Fire Prelude (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Transfigurations: II. Photon (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Transfigurations: III. Ozymandias (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Transfigurations: IV. Iphis (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Transfigurations: V. Yeshua (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Transfigurations: VI. Tat Tvam Asi (text by Silvestri)
- Tin — Nocturne (piano solo by Julie Rieth)
- Carnahan — Dancing on the Edges of Time (text by Tagore)
- Arnesen — Flight Song (text by Tait)
- Garrett — Sing Out My Soul (text by Davies)
- Hagenberg — Refuge (text by Teasdale, cello by Patzner)
- Ramsey — Voces Lucis (text by Silvestri, cello by Patzner)
- Tin — Sogno di Volare (adapted by Cortez)
Performers
- David Huff, Music Director
- Julie Baumann Rieth, Principal Accompanist
- Christopher Tin, Composer
- Charles Anthony Silvestri, Lyricist
- Eva Langfeldt, oboe
- Lewis Patzner, cello
- Eric Price, double bass
- Chromatica Chorale