The three-minute Flipcam concert: Christina Courtin sings on the Hudson

The young New York singer Christina Courtin was first featured in Time Out New York in 2006, when she was 22, unsigned and fresh out of Juilliard. Courtin, who studied violin and still keeps a foot in the classical world, has since settled on the one label that befits her work: Nonesuch, which will release her superb debut album tomorrow. The self-titled record is beautifully textured, with contributions from hotshots like Jon Brion and Benmont Tench, but it pivots around Courtin’s commanding voice. Earlier this month, Courtin and guitarist Ryan Scott performed “Foreign Country” for TONY, playing on a Hudson pier across from the Frying Pan, helicopters buzzing around them. The musician appeared affable and social one minute—then bizarrely focused and trapped in some third dimension of song once she opened her mouth to sing. Courtin plays a record-release show at (Le) Poisson Rouge Wednesday 24. After the jump, she talks about the song and the Frying Pan.