Unless otherwise noted, all specials are on Classical IPR. You can also download a full color brochure of all the holiday specials along with Interlochen Arts Academy performances. NOTE: We have one correction from our brochure (above). A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will broadcast live on Christmas Eve at 10:00am ET.
Classical IPR
12/23/14
5pm - 6pm
Messiah from Washington National Cathedral
Each year the Cathedral's annual Messiah performances during the first weekend of December attract an audience of some 6,000 from the greater Washington area. With a team of the finest international soloists, coming from the US and abroad, these performances offer exceptional value for a very high-quality, popular Christmas broadcast.
6pm - 7pm
Candles Burning Brightly
Join hosts Mindy Ratner and Bill Morelock for a one-hour celebration of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. There's plenty of music from Jewish communities around the world, plus an exploration of holiday traditions, and a special story reading by the incomparable Theodore Bikel.
12/24/14
8am - 9am
A Chanticleer Christmas
Nothing signals the beginning of the holiday season like 12 men singing in beautifully blended harmony. A Chanticleer Christmas is American Public Media's one-hour celebration of the season as told through the glorious voices of Chanticleer, the San Francisco-based men's choir. The program spans the globe and the centuries-from England in the 1300s to new arrangements of classic and contemporary carols to Chanticleer's popular Gospel medley of Christmas tunes.
9am - 10am
Christmas at the Movies
The Christmas holiday is charged with nostalgia and hope, so a Christmas setting can effectively heighten the emotional power of any film. There have been many Christmas scenes in movies, and host David Garland unwraps some of the accompanying music for them. Holiday favorites such as It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street and The Bishop's Wife are included.
10am - 12pm
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Hosted by Michael Barone, this is a live stereo music and spoken-word 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.
5pm - 6pm
Welcome Christmas
An hour of joyful holiday music featuring one of the world's premiere choral groups, led by Philip Brunelle and hosted for the sixteenth year by APM's John Birge. This year, a tribute to the late Dave Brubeck with his classical Christmas cantata "La Fiesta de la Posada". Plus, this year's winners of the annual carol contest with the American Composers Forum. Gramophone magazine called VocalEssence "excellent and vibrant." NEA Chairman Dana Gioia named them "one of the irreplaceable music ensembles of our time." Join us in December for holiday classics new and old, when Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence Welcome Christmas! from American Public Media.
6pm - 7pm
Light and Gold: the Music of Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre is America's most popular composer today, and his choral works are beloved by choirs throughtout the world. He introduces the music with co-host Brian Newhouse and describes the often-colorful back-story of how each piece came to be.
ON IPR NEWS
12/24/14
3pm-4pm
Humankind Special: The Christmas Truce
On the occasion of its 100th anniverary, we take a moving look at the 1914 Christmas Truce, in which opposing soldiers in WW1 risked court-martial by laying down their arms. They actually exchanged holiday gifts and sang carols together during their short-lived ceasefire on the frozen battlefield of Flanders, Belgium. John McCutcheon performs and discusses his Grammy-nominated folksong, 'Christmas in the Trenches', which he sang decades after the war for elderly veterans who participated in the truce. And we hear details from historians Stanley Weintraub and Scott Bennett who have written about fascinating war-time peace efforts.
8pm-9pm
A Christmas Carol w/Jonathon Winters
An updated version of a public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. Also featuring Mimi Kennedy. From NPR and KCRW.
12/25/14
7am - 8am
A Baroque Christmas in the New World
In celebration of the holiday season, A Baroque Christmas in the New World brings music from 17th and 18th century Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, including a cantata and three free-standing works by Sumaya--most of which comes from the only surviving manuscript in full-score in Sumaya's own hand.
8am - 10am
Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra celebrates the season with a performance of Handel's Messiah. Betsy Burleigh conducts the orchestra, soloists and Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh at Heinz Hall.
ON IPR NEWS
12/25/14
1pm - 2pm
Tinsel Tales
NPR fills millions of homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Hear a collection of the best and most requested holiday stories. Joy, hope, and childhood memories overflow as NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
ON IPR NEWS
3pm -4pm
A Christmas Carol w/Jonathon Winters
An updated version of a public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. Also featuring Mimi Kennedy. From NPR and KCRW.
12pm - 2pm
Classics for Christmas with Nancy Deneen
Enjoy familiar holiday selections including vocal renditions and instrumentals from orchestras and chamber groups. Nancy Deneen shares nostalgic music along with newer performances that polish up your holiday favorites.
2pm - 4pm
St. Olaf 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, and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians who are members of five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.
4pm - 5pm
Sounds of the Season
Interlochen Arts Academy's Symphonic Band and Choir join forces for a concert full of thrilling music for the holidays. There's plenty here that will move and inspire you, and room for some fun, too! Hosted by IPR's Kate Botello.
5pm - 7pm
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Hosted by Michael Barone, this is a live stereo music and spoken-word 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.
12/26/14
8am - 9am
A Season's Griot (Kwanzaa)
This one-hour celebration in story and song is public radio's only nationally syndicated Kwanzaa program. Hosted for nearly 20 years by acclaimed storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson, this annual special captures the tales and traditions of African American and African peoples. This year's program will celebrate Peace with special guests Pamela Reid, Joyce Grear and the show's poet laureate, Beverly Burnette.
9am - 10am
TSO Holiday Concert-Home for the Holidays
Guest Conductor Robin Fountain leads the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, joined by Jeffrey Cobb leading the NMC Grand Traverse Chorale & Children's Choir in the annual "Home for the Holidays" concert. Features IPR's Kate Botello narrating the classic holiday story, "The Snowman," with the Orchestra and Choir.
ON IPR NEWS
12/26/14
9am-10am
Tinsel Tales
NPR fills millions of homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Hear a collection of the best and most requested holiday stories. Joy, hope, and childhood memories overflow as NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
5pm- 7pm
Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra - A Baroque Christmas Concert
Featuring Vivaldi's Gloria, the Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 of Corelli, and from Handel's Messiah: The Prophecy and the Nativity. Recorded at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Petoskey, Michigan
12/27/14
9am - 11am
Vienna New Years Retrospective with host Kate Botello
For many years, the Vienna Philharmonic has performed a famous New Year's Concert of lively favorites from the time of the Waltz Kings, the Strauss Family. Join us for a retrospective of these wonderful concerts as we ramp up for our annual broadcast, live from Vienna.
11am - 1pm
A Christmas Celtic Sojourn
Direct from the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, a Celtic celebration of the season, with top-flight traditional singers and instrumentalists, and a story or two from host Brian O’Donovan.
1pm - 3:45pm
Metropolitan Opera - La Traviata
12/31/14
8pm - 10pm
A Paul Winter Solstice Concert
Celebrate the return of the sun and the warming of the heart with Paul Winter's All New 34th Winter Solstice Celebration. On the darkest night of the year, we head back to New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine to hear The Paul Winter Consort and the glorious Cathedral Pipe Organ. The performance brings traditional holiday favorites and new sounds from around the world with special guests Ivan Lins and Renato Braz. Hosted by John Schaefer.
1/1/15
11am - 1pm
New Year's Day from Vienna
The Philharmonic presents its ever popular annual New Year's Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. You'll hear your favorite waltzes, polkas and more -- a festive way to start off the New Year. Presented by NPR Music and WGBH, Boston.
1/3/15
9am - 11am
New Releases for the New Year with Nancy Deneen
Let's start out the new year with some new favorites. Nancy Deneen will introduce us to some of the best new additions to the Interlochen Public Radio music collection.
11am - 1pm
New Year's Day from Vienna
The Philharmonic presents its ever popular annual New Year's Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. You'll hear your favorite waltzes, polkas and more -- a festive way to start off the New Year. Presented by NPR Music and WGBH, Boston.
1pm - 3:25pm
Metropolitan Opera - Hansel and Gretel
