Latest in Classical Music

 Join Classical IPR on Christmas Day at 2 p.m. for "Sounds of the Season," the 2017 holiday concert from Interlochen Arts Academy.

View Classical IPR's complete holiday program schedule by clicking here.

  A new album from Decca features winter-themed music by the Norwegian-born American composer Ola Gjeilo. Gjeilo himself is at the piano for every piece, and her performs with 12 Ensemble and the Choir of Royal Holloway, conducted by Rupert Gough.

Join Classical IPR on Christmas Day at 4 p.m. for Winter Songs and Carols, the 2017 holiday concert from Manitou Winds. View the complete Songs and Carols concert program below.

View Classical IPR's complete holiday program schedule by clicking here.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro).  Harry Bicket conducts the performance, which features bass-baritone Adam Plachetka as the wily valet Figaro, opposite soprano Christiane Karg, who makes her network broadcast debut as his fiancée, the maid Susanna.  Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the Countess, a role she sang for her Met debut in 2014, opposite bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, reprising his interpretation of the lascivious Count Almaviva, and mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi is the page, Cherubino.

Thanks to listeners in Cadillac, Petoskey, Lake Ann, Traverse City, Cheboygan and many other places for your requests this week.

1. Mykola Leontovich, Carol of the Bells; James Meredith/Sonos Handbell Ensemble

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Marriage of Figaro overture; New York Philharmonic Winds

3. Traditional, The Little Drummer Boy; The Klezmonauts

4. Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody no. 3; George Li

5. Traditional, Ya Maryam El Bekr; Fairuz

6. William Bolcom, Three Rags; Altius String Quartet

Join in the joy! Surround yourself with the holiday spirit as Corson Auditorium sets the stage for Interlochen’s annual holiday concert, Sounds of the Season. Enjoy the Interlochen Arts Academy Band and Choir as they present a magical evening of family-friendly festivities. Listen live this Friday at 7 p.m. on Classical IPR.

If you’re a top cellist at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, you’re probably in a gang. A cello gang, that is. Amit Peled calls the students in his studio the Peabody Cello Gang, and they have a new album.

Bellini’s Norma, starring Angela Meade and Jamie Barton, who reprise their acclaimed interpretations of the Druid priestess Norma and her rival Adalgisa. The performance also features Joseph Calleja as Norma’s unfaithful lover Pollione and Matthew Rose as her father Oroveso, conducted by Joseph Colaneri, in a production by Sir David McVicar.

Listen LIVE on Classical IPR on Saturday, December 16 at 1pm ET.

Thanks to listeners in St. Ignace, Harbor Springs, Cadillac, Williamsburg, and many other places for your requests this week.

1. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (first movement); Jose Serebrier/London Philharmonic Orchestra

2. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker (selections); Modern Mandolin Quartet

3. John McCutcheon, Christmas in the Trenches; John McDermott

4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Magic Flute overture; Bruno Weil/Tafelmusik

5. Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress is Our God; Vienna Boys Choir & Placido Domingo

Interlochen Public Radio, the University Musical Society and the New York Philharmonic presented a  live program from Hill Auditorium on November 19th. It will be rebroadcast  on Classical IPR this Friday, December 8th at 8pm.

The program features commentary, interviews, and the performance of Don Quixote by Strauss and Bernstein's  Symphony No. 3 "Kaddish" conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Along with the New York Philharmonic, performers include Speaker Jeremy Irons, Soprano Tamara Wilson, the UMS Choral Union, and the MSU Children's Choir.

 Violinist Angèle Dubeau and her orchestra La Pietà have recorded musical portraits of many composers, including Philip Glass, Ludovico Einaudi and John Adams. Their latest musical portrait album features selected works of Max Richter.

Mozart’s The Magic Flute stars Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Pamina, Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, Charles Castronovo as Tamino, Nathan Gunn as Papageno, Alfred Walker as the Speaker, and Tobias Kehrer as Sarastro. Evan Rogister makes his Met debut conducting the opera, which is performed in an abridged, English-language version of the popular production by Julie Taymor.

Listen LIVE on Classical IPR on Saturday, December 9 at 1pm ET.

Thank you to listeners in Lake Leelanau, Petoskey, Suttons Bay, Levering, Good Harbor Bay and many other places for your requests this week.

1. Harold Arlen, Get Happy; Jenny Lin

2. Hildegard von Bingen, O quam magnum miraculum est; Nonsuch Singers

3. Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story Suite; Orchestra of the Americas

4. Giuseppe Verdi, Libera me from the Requiem; Sir Georg Solti/Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Leontyne Price

5. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto, third movement; JoAnn Falletta/Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/Chloe Hanslip