Holiday Programs

12/24

6am-9am
Classical Music with Samee Griffith

9am-10am
The Intimate Guitar with Jim McCutcheon

Enjoy music of the season from soloists Stephen Siktberg and Rodrigo Rodriguez; lutenist Ronn McFarlane and viola da gambist Carolyn Surrick; violinist Ken Sugita and guitarist Anthony Glise; and dessert with the incomparable Mason Williams.
 
10am-12pm
Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

An annual and beloved Christmas tradition, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is an extraordinary and memorable live service of word and music from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, England. Audiences will share in a live, world-wide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal music (anthems a cappella and with organ accompaniment, and congregational hymns), presented by one of the world's foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue.

12pm-1pm
Christmastime in New York

The Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine performs at the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a program that spans hundreds of years and describes the story of the nativity.

1pm-2pm
Discover Classical's Christmas Favorites

2pm-4pm

Theme & Variations with Joe Law

On Christmas Eve, celebrate the holiday in the New World with music from North, Central, and South America. You’ll hear music by Juan de Araujo, Cesar Alejandro Carrillo, George Crumb, Jose Maricio Nunes Garcia, Howard Hanson, William Grant Still, Conrad Susa, Healey Willan and Juan García de Zespedes, as well as a couple of traditional spirituals.

4pm-5pm

Early Music Now with Sara Schneider

Out with the Old: On this week's program, we're celebrating Christmas, St. Stephen's Day, and the waning of the old year. We'll hear tracks from Cappella Romana's recent release, A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry's Court, chant and polyphony for St. Stephen's Day sung by the Orlando Consort, and music by Samuel Scheidt and Johann Schop celebrating the old year.

5pm-6pm

The Score with Edmund Stone

Christmas Memories: Edmund Stone takes a journey down memory lane with a show replete with Christmas memories.  Bask in the warm glow of the music from holiday favorites including A Christmas Story, White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas and more.

6pm-7pm

American Landscapes

An American Christmas - Part 2

Harry Rowe Shelley: Santa Claus Overture
George W. Chadwick: Noel
Leroy Anderson: A Christmas Festival
Dmitri Tiomkin: It's a Wonderful Life
Barbara Harbach: The Annunciation
William Henry Fry: Santa Claus Symphony

7pm-8pm

Center Stage from Wolf Trap

Cantus

Abbie Betinis:  The Mirthful Heart
Joseph Brackett:  Simple Gifts
Leos Janacek:  Ave Maria
Franz Biebl:  Ave Maria
Elizabeth Poston:  Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
Rachel DeVore Fogarty:  Beside Thy Manger
Corlynn Hanney:  Christmas Angel
John Jacob Niles:  I Wonder as I Wander
Adam J. Simon:  Croatia
Franz Gruber:  Silent Night
Samuel A. Ward:  America the Beautiful

8pm-11pm

Concert Night

Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
Neal Gittleman, conductor
Laura Portune, soprano; Steven Rickards, countertenor; William Compton, tenor; Daesan No, baritone

"Messiah: The Composer's Cut"
Recorded December 12, 2010, at Westminster Presbyterian Church

George Frideric Handel:  Messiah

11pm-12am

Classical Music with Samee Griffith

12/25

6am-7am
Rochester Lessons and Carols

The program is inspired by the Festival of Lessons and Carols made famous at King's College in Cambridge, England and consists of traditional readings along with music by Andrew Carter, Anton Bruckner, Herbert Howells and Dan Locklair. Under the direction of organist/choirmaster Peter DuBois, the Third Presbyterian's Chancel Choir is recognized for its performance of English Church Music. The choir includes both professional and amateur singers, drawing on the rich talent of the Eastman School of Music, the local musical community and the congregation of Third Presbyterian.

7am-8am
Discover Classical Christmas Favorites

8am-9am
Welcome Christmas

VocalEssence, one of the world's premiere choral groups, performs traditional carols and new discoveries.

9am-10am
A Handel and Haydn Society Christmas

The Handel and Haydn Society is America's oldest continuously performing ensemble.  This program features sacred choral music for the season by Handel, Gustav Holst, Eric Whitacre, John Rutter and more.

10am-11am
Carols and Cheer

Scott Blankenship and T. Mychael Rambo review their favorite carols this holiday season. Audiences will love singing along as they share their top picks for the Christmas season, performed by today's leading artists and ensembles.

11am-12pm
Discover Classical Christmas Favorites

12pm-1pm
A Chanticleer Christmas

This unique program of holiday music was presented live in concert at the Cathedral of St. Paul by male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Hear why this superb 12-man ensemble is known as "an orchestra of voices," as they perform holiday classics and new favorites.

1pm-2pm
Leroy Anderson Christmas Special

2pm-3pm
Light and Gold with Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre is the most popular choral composer today, and his works are beloved by choirs throughout the world. In this one-hour program, he introduces the music with co-host Brian Newhouse and describes the often-colorful backstory of how each piece came to be.

3pm-4pm
Discover Classical Christmas Favorites

4pm-5pm
Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
 
The world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir continues its tradition of great artistry this holiday season, with touching arrangements of familiar carols, and lesser-known melodies that are fast becoming the new classics. Mack Wilberg leads the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra.

5pm-6pm
Christmas with Anonymous 4

6pm-8pm
Performance Today

8pm-10pm
SymphonyCast

Lviv National Philharmonic
Theodore Kuchar, conductor
Stanislav Kristenko, piano

Johannes Brahms:  Tragic Overture
Edvard Grieg:  Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"

10pm-12am
O Magnum Mysterium: The Brass & Choral Holiday Concert

Music of the Baroque is comprised of a chorus and orchestra of approximately 60 professional musicians who individually perform around the nation and worldwide and come together in Chicago as a collective.  Music makes the holidays come alive, and through the centuries this special time of year inspired composers to new creative heights. Drawn from diverse cultures and various points in history, conductor William Jon Gray has assembled a program highlighting multifarious holiday traditions around a single unifying principle: whether in the twelfth or nineteenth centuries, in Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, the Netherlands, or Spain, music gives voice to the spirit of the season.