WEMC Holiday Broadcast Schedule 2012

Our daytime and overnight classical programming will include an increasing amount of holiday music through and Christmas.

Mostly Mennonite, Mostly Acapella will feature seasonal music each Sunday morning, from 8 to 9:30, including an Epiphany special on December 30 and a Christmas retrospective on January 6.

Sunday, Dec. 9th

5pm Millennium of Music - A Plainchant Advent and Christmas Recordings for the season from the Daughters of Mary, the Monks of the Desert, and the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

Sunday, Dec. 16th

5pm Millennium of Music - A Palestrina Christmas The superb early music ensemble The Sixteen dedicates Volume 2 of their new Palestrina series to the composer's works for Advent and Christmas.

7pm Air Play – Happy Holidays WEMC’s own presentation of local classical performances will celebrate with a special mix of holiday music from around the region.

Saturday, Dec. 22nd

9am-Noon Mel Lee’s Songbag Holiday Or is it Holiday Songbag?

Sunday, Dec. 23rd

5pm Millennium of Music - The Trinity Carol Roll This earliest source for English polyphonic carols is given a stellar new interpretation by David Skinner's ensemble Alamire.

Monday, Christmas Eve

8am Welcome Christmas! Frequent guests on A Prairie Home Companion, VocalEssence rings in the season with an hour of joyful holiday music. This year's program focuses on old French carols, alongside two world premieres in the annual VocalEssence/American Composers Forum contest.

9am A Chanticleer Christmas America's best-known male chorus celebrates the mystery and wonder of Christmas with a program that spans the globe and the centuries…from England in the 1300s to new arrangements of classic and contemporary carols.

10am A Festival of (LIVE) This is the long-running live music and spoken-word broadcast from Cambridge, England with the 30-voice King's College Choir.

12pm Echoes of Christmas The Dale Warland Singers’ signature holiday concert for 30 years was the annual Echoes of Christmas program. Drawing upon the archive of their live performances, Dale Warland and host Brian Newhouse create a very special Christmas musical treat.

1pm St. Olaf Christmas Festival This much-loved service in song and word includes hymns, carols, choral works and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 St. Olaf College student musicians.

3pm The Story of Christmas: A Pageant from Washington National Cathedral This year's annual special Christmas broadcast with the Cathedral Girls' Choir brings a unique performance of Benjamin Britten's wonderful Ceremony of Carols. The girls are joined by young actors from Princeton Day School, who present the biblical narrative in their own words and commentary.

4pm Handel's Messiah: The Christmas Portion and Hallelujah Chorus The Dallas Bach Society’s Messiah is historically informed in all the best senses: compact performing forces, period instruments and generously expressive singing and playing.

5pm Christmas Music non-stop through Christmas Day

Tuesday, Christmas Day

Midnight-Midnight 24 hours of Christmas Music!

Sunday, Dec. 30th

5pm Millennium of Music - A High Renaissance Christmas Recent releases of works by contemporaries Tomas Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Gabrieli give us a chance to celebrate the season as it would have been four centuries ago.

Tuesday, Jan. 1st

11am New Year's Day from Vienna 2013 The Vienna Philharmonic presents its immensely popular New Year's Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, with favorite Strauss Family waltzes, polkas and more.

Sunday, Jan. 6th

5pm Millennium of Music - I Sing the Birth It has been a rough year, especially in New York and environs. Let's give the last word for the season to New York Polyphony, with music for the Twelve Days and the New Year.