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Ring in the Holiday Season with Classic FM!
by
December 16, 2024
Join WCNY Classic FM this holiday season for great music to bring you light and cheer.
Here is our lineup for 2024:
Christmas Eve:
10 a.m.: A Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols Live from Kings College – Cambridge
Pipedreams host Michael Barone presents this live service of spoken-word and music (choral and organ) broadcast from the chapel of King’s College in Cambridge, England. The 30-voice King’s College Choir performs the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service of Biblical readings and music.
12 p.m.: A Chanticleer Christmas
This unique, one-hour program of holiday music is presented live in concert by Chanticleer. Hear why this superb 12-man ensemble is known as “an orchestra of voices,” as they perform holiday classics and new favorites, with choral commentary by host Steve Staruch.
1 p.m.: A Sacred Christmas from Lester the Nightfly
We have a special collection of music in the classical style… we’ll call it classical with a small “c.” Some from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic Eras. And a few pieces (John Rutter and Eric Whitacre) are very recent.
2 p.m.: Merry Christmas from the King of Instruments
A celebration of Christmas with an hour of classical organ music for the season.
3 p.m.: Three Tales of Christmas with Cantus
In Three Tales of Christmas with Cantus, Cantus weaves together three holiday stories with time-honored carols and new classics. Blending narration and song, the program features Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Christine Lê’s The Hawai’i Snowman, alongside Mark Twain’s “A Letter from Santa Claus,” offering an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and joy of the holiday season.
4 p.m.: A Modern Notebook Christmas
Host Tyler Kline shares a collection of contemporary works for voice that expands the rich tradition of choral music of this time of year with music by Owain Park, Sungji Hong, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, Kerensa Briggs, and others.
5 p.m.: Christmas at 33 & 1/3 with Chris Cresswell
WCNY’s own Chris Cresswell once again brings you Christmas favorites from his LP collection.
6 p.m.: Slavic Wonders: Christmas with the Rose Ensemble
The Rose Ensemble is back with a one-hour holiday special. Slavic Wonders is a stunning celebration of the season featuring some truly brilliant gems from the libraries and monasteries of Krakow, Prague, and Moscow. The Rose Ensemble of Minnesota has put together a program of dazzling, passionate music for Christmastime in the great variety and range they are known for.
Christmas Day:
6-10 a.m.: Christmas Morning Live with Diane Jones
Gather friends and family from far and wide to share their Christmas morning live with music from host Diane Jones. It’s an annual tradition!
10 a.m.: St. Olaf’s Christmas Festival
A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. Tickets to the event – which takes place at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN – are always gone months in advance. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.
12 p.m.: A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico
Celebrate Christmas with the sound of soaring voices. Stile Antico, the award-winning choir from London, pays a visit to St. Paul’s Church on Harvard Square for a concert of radiant sacred music for the Christmas season by the most acclaimed composers of the renaissance. Hear the group’s luminous blend of voices sing the intricately woven music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. Hosted by Cathy Fuller of WGBH.
1 p.m.: Rochester 9 Lessons and Carols
This Christmas, share one of the most beloved traditions of the season with A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols! The program is recorded at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York under the direction of newly appointed organist/choirmaster James Kealey, winner of the AGO 2022 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance and one of The Diapason’s 2021 “20 under 30” young artists. The program consists of the traditional readings that were selected by King’s College Dean Eric Milner White in 1918, and music by Carl Rutti, George Frederick Handel, Herbert Howells, Ola Gjeilo, and William Mathias.
2 p.m.: Carols, Customs and Candlelight
Listen as host Andrea Blain explores music and customs that have roots in ancient winter celebrations and traditional Christmas festivals. The music features classical ensembles and soloists like Apollo’s Fire and Bryn Terfel, as well as traditional instruments like harp, fiddle and mandolin.
3 p.m.: Welcome Christmas 2024 with VocalEssence
The perennial Christmas favorite from VocalEssence, one of the world’s premiere choral groups. An hour of traditional carols and new discoveries.
4 p.m.: An Ebony Classics Christmas
An Ebony Classics Christmas brings classical music for the holiday season by musicians and composers of African descent. We will hear from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Kathleen Battle, Boys Choir of Harlem, The Kanneh-Masons, Leontyne Price, James Depreist, Imani Winds, Marian Anderson, Black Violin, Margaret Bonds, Bobby McFerrin, Paul Freeman, Wynton Marsalis, Leontyne Price, William Grant Still, William L. Dawson, Marvis Martin, The St. Olaf Choir, Anton Armstrong, and others.
5 p.m.: Horns and Harmonies 2024
Once again we partner with Syracuse University as Bruce Paulsen hosts the annual Horns and Harmonies Concert, recorded at Hendricks Chapel on the SU campus.
6 p.m.: Christmas with Madrigalia
This holiday season, the Rochester, NY chamber choir Madrigalia and their Artistic Director Cary Ratcliff return to public radio for Christmas with Madrigalia. The program celebrates the excitement and joy of the holiday season with traditional carols and anthems from the around the world celebrating the Winter Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas, and the New Year. This holiday program, recorded live in concert, features beautiful music for the winter holidays by Kim Andre Arnesen, Tamsin Jones, Christian Onyeji, Javier Busto, Vaclav Nelhybel, Elizabeth Poston and Cary Ratcliff. And they will be joined by the Rochester Bach Children’s Chorus for traditional music for the December holidays.
Chanukah:
Celebrate Chanukah with WCNY! Host Adam Fine brings you “Hanukah Highlights,” marking the eight days with a new vignette every night, starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 25, with re-broadcasts at 7 a.m. and noon the following day.
New Year’s Day:
The New Year’s Day tradition continues on Wednesday, January 1 at 11:00am, when WCNY share the live broadcast of New Year’s Day from Vienna 2025! The Vienna Philharmonic will perform their famous New Year’s Day concert from the renowned Musikverein in Vienna on January 1, 2025. The concert will be conducted by Riccardo Muti, Music Director Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony, who has directed the Vienna Philharmonic more than 500 times since his debut in 1971. This will be his seventh New Year’s Day appearance, his first was in 1993.
The 2025 New Year’s Day program includes many favorites by Johann Strauss Junior, since 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of his birth, as well as two items appearing on the New Year’s Day concert for the first time, including the Ferdinandus Waltz by Johann Strauss’ contemporary Constanze Geiger. As it has for decades now, the encores feature the most famous waltz ever, From the Blue Danube, as well as the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Senior. Hosted by WBUR’s Lisa Mullins.
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Learn more about Classic FM at wcny.org/radio.
