WMRA Holiday Broadcast Schedule 2012 (Note: The WEMC schedule follows the WMRA schedule, on pages 3-5)
Sunday, Dec. 9th
10pm Hanukkah Lights 2012 A perennial NPR favorite, Hanukkah Lights features stories and memoirs written by acclaimed authors expressly for the show, as read by Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz.
Tuesday, Dec. 18th
7pm Air Play – Happy Holidays WMRA’s own presentation of local classical performances will celebrate with a special mix of holiday music from around the region.
Friday, Dec. 21st
12pm Tinsel Tales: NPR Christmas Favorites This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk and other NPR voices, past and present.
Saturday, Dec. 22nd
12pm Acoustic Café –Home for the Holidays Tina Owens presents some of the best holiday music from our area and the Acoustic Café library.
1pm A Paul Winter Solstice Concert The towering walls of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine reverberate with sounds of celebration in this NPR holiday tradition. Paul Winter welcomes gospel singer Theresa Thomason, multi-instrumentalist/singer Arto Tunçboyaciyan, double reed wizard Paul McCandless, and the Paul Winter Consort in live performances from their recent Grammy-winning album MIHO and their timeless solstice songs.
3pm Tinsel Tales 2: NPR Christmas Favorites With humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices, this is another collection of the best and most requested holiday stories.
WMRA Holiday Broadcast Schedule 2012
Sunday, Dec. 23rd
8pm A Christmas Celtic Sojourn - Live in Concert! This year's 10th Anniversary show is led by music director Seamus Egan, leading his groundbreaking group Solas, along with harpist Catriona McKay, fiddlers Chris Stout and Winifred Horan and cellist Natalie Haas. Singers include Chieftains vocalist Alyth McCormack from Scotland, the four-part harmonies of Navan, and the great vocals of Mick McAuley and Eamonn McElholm.
10pm All Songs Considered for the Holidays It's the fourth edition of the not so new, wonky holiday tradition from NPR Music. Host Bob Boilen and friends trade holiday cheer and snarky barbs while bringing you the best holiday songs from new and emerging bands.
Monday, Dec. 24th
3pm Jonathan Winters' A Christmas Carol 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, from a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own readings.
Friday, Dec. 28th
12pm A Season's Griot 2012 This year's Kwanzaa celebration in story and song features youth as the special guest Griots, reading their own original and traditional stories. Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also be in place with plenty of music, and an original composition by the show's poet laureate, Beverly Fields Burnette. Hosted by Madafo Lloyd Wilson.
Saturday, Dec. 29th
3pm A Season's Griot 2012(Repeat)
Monday, Dec. 31st
3pm The Capitol Steps: Politics Takes a Holiday The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. They put the “mock” in “democracy.”
WEMC Holiday Broadcast Schedule 2012
Our daytime and overnight classical programming will include an increasing amount of holiday music through Advent 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 Christmas carol 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 Nine Lessons and Carols (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.