(Originally posted 12/19/22)
Special Programming for Christmas 2022
Simulcast on our Sunshine 96.7 FM and RadioStPete Online Streams
Christmas Eve:
12 Noon “Movies on the Radio” An hour of Christmas memories direct from the silver screen!
1pm “An Unfamiliar Christmas” w/Charlie Warren. An hour of rarely heard but wonderful holiday music. A gift of discovery for listeners.
2pm A Swinging Holiday Jazz Party with Wynton Marsalis. Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz favorites by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter, René Marie, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
3pm “A Holiday Music Tour with Judy Collins” Singing legend Judy Collins headlines the third in a series of hour-long holiday specials featuring musicians from around the country performing original holiday songs and some classics. Artists include Steve Earle, Jesse Colin Young, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tish Hinojosa and many more.
4pm “Christmas with the Enemy” Narrative in words and music telling the story of the spontaneous truce arranged among soldiers along the Western Front, Christmas, 1914. Features over two dozen voices reading from letters and diaries of those who were there. Much of the music drawn from the period, including those they sang for each other and with each other.
5pm “Christmas from St. Olaf” Highlights of the 109th St. Olaf Christmas Festival featuring splendid music of the season, performed by the St. Olaf Choir, the Chapel Choir, the Manitou Singers, the Cantorei, the Viking Chorus and the St. Olaf Orchestra, separately and as a massed ensemble. In all, more than 500 student musicians took part.
6pm “The Christmas Revels 2022 IN CELEBRATION OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE 2022” is a brand-new, musical celebration of the Winter holidays — Christmas, the Solstice, Lonkonnu, New Year’s and Twelfth Night/Epiphany — featuring traditional carols, wassails, hymns, spirituals, children’s game-songs, and folk dance-tunes excerpted from live Christmas Revels stage productions presented around the country.
8pm “Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain” In this one-hour special, the listener is transported from Christmas Eve in medieval Scotland to the folk carols and shape‐note hymns at a toe‐tapping Christmas gathering in Virginia. The people of the Appalachian Mountains welcome Christmas with LOVE, SINGING, DANCING, and PRAYER.
9pm “Christmas with the Rose Ensemble” The Rose Ensemble brings the time of the Tudors to life. Splendor, tension and intrigue, all reflected in the dark and light of tender carols, and soaring anthems. A fresh holiday program that captures the essence of the reign Elizabeth I.
10pm “Christmas with Madrigalia” This holiday season, the Rochester, NY chamber choir Madrigalia and their Artistic Director Cary Ratcliff return to public radio for Christmas with Madrigalia. Since 1975, Madrigalia has presented unique and challenging programs of choral music built around intriguing themes. Their music is drawn from all times and places, spanning the riches of classic choral styles, the vast range of compelling music being written in our time, and the intriguing musical expressions of cultures throughout the world. Celebrate the excitement and joy of the holiday season with traditional carols and anthems from the Medieval era through the 21st century. This one-hour program, recorded live in concert, features beautiful music for the winter holidays by Richard Wilder, Dennis Rosenbaum, Tomas Luis de Victoria, John Rutter, Franz Gruber and others.
11pm “Gaudate Christmas” Sara Schneider, producer and host of Early Music Now, presents Gaudete! Early Music for the Christmas Season, with joyful and contemplative sounds of the season. In this 1-hour holiday special, we’ll hear Byzantine chant by Kassiani, and selections from Missa Puer natus est nobis by Thomas Tallis, plus hymns and motets from Spain, Germany, and France. Our performers include The Cardinall’s Musick, Theatre of Voices, Cappella Romana, and Oltremontano.
Christmas Day:
12 Mid “Nine Lessons and Carols” One of the most beloved traditions of the holiday season is the Festival of Lessons and Carols, a service made famous at King’s College in Cambridge, England. The Festival tells the Christmas story in words and music, and is presented all over the world in many languages and variations. This Christmas, tune in for A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols, recorded at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York under the direction of organist/choirmaster Peter DuBois, who is known to public radio listeners across the country as the host of With Heart and Voice. The one-hour program will consist of the traditional readings that were selected by King’s College Dean Eric Milner White in 1918, and music by Boris Ord. Mack Wilberg, C V Stanford, John Rutter, and Philip Stopford.
1am “An Early Music Christmas” An hour-long program of seasonal music from the distant past and through the ages, both sublime and earthly, across time and place, and across beliefs and traditions. Featuring a rich selection of well-known holiday vocal music, including selections from Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and a variety of traditional hymns, carols and song.
2am “Classical Christ on The Third Floor” w/Bill Cromwell. Join host Bill Cromwell for three hours of glorious choral, vocal, and instrumental classical music for the season, including arias and choruses from Messiah, instrumental Christmas favorites with the Empire Brass and LA Guitar Quartet, plus long segments of sacred choral music from across the centuries from the great choirs of the world: King’s College, Cambridge; the Robert Shaw Chorale; the Choir of Men and Boys, St. Thomas 5th Avenue New York; The BBC Singers; the American Boy choir; Pomerium; The Elora Festival Singers; St. Olaf Choir, NY Polyphony, and many others.
5am “An American Christmas” Music by American composers in celebration of Christmas.
6am “Music of the Baroque Brass and Choral Holiday Concert” the WFMT Radio Network and Music of the Baroque wants to wish you and yours a joyous holiday season as we offer the Brass and Choral Holiday Concert for your listening pleasure. Hosted by celebrated WFMT host Candice Agree, tune in to the great works of composers like Samuel Scheidt, Giovanni Gabrieli, William Billings, Claudio Monteverdi, and many more.
8am “With Heart and Voice” With Heart and Voice ® is a weekly program of sacred choral and organ music that explores the ever-growing treasury of works for life’s spiritual side, its seasons and celebrations. With Heart and Voice
9am “Sing for Joy” The Sing for Joy radio program, produced by St. Olaf College, has a simple mission: to explore the weekly themes of Christian worship by providing the best in sacred choral music and thoughtful commentary. The musical performances eloquently “do the talking,” while the concise remarks from host Rev. Alexandra M. Jacob illuminate the meaning of the texts.
9:30am “Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square” Since 1929, nearly the lifetime of radio, The Tabernacle Choir has been a phenomenon of broadcasting, with the longest continuous broadcast on the air. Music & the Spoken Word has been inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame and has entered the hearts of listeners everywhere.
10am Cathedral Church of St. Peter
140 4th Avenue North on Williams Park
Christmas Morning Service (live broadcast)
Holy Eucharist Rite II
Congregational singing and Organ
11am Master Chorale of Tampa Bay Christmas. Praised by music critics as “one of the country’s finest choirs,” “an amazing instrument,” and a “cultural treasure,” The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay has consistently delivered some of the most profoundly moving music performances in the Tampa Bay area. The Chorale is the official choir of the Florida Orchestra.
12 noon “Christmas with the Canadian Brass” Hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon, this program features arrangements of music by Vince Guaraldi and Luther Henderson as well as traditional favorites from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and more – timeless classics infused with jazz and lush harmonies.
1pm “An Appalachian Christmas” Mark O’Connor, famous bluegrass fiddler and respected American composer, leads the O’Connor Band and special guest Nancy Ives, principal cellist of the Oregon Symphony, in An Appalachian Christmas
2pm Christmas with the Annie Moses Band The Annie Moses Band’s phenomenal US, PBS debut is now available as a 1 hour Concert Special, 30 minute or as individual songs for your Radio network. Touching the depths of your listeners’ hearts with the message of Christmas with this remarkable mix of Jazz, Classical and Celtic sounds, this all-sibling group will inspire your listeners. With a breathtaking mix of holiday classics and originals performed by highly skilled Juilliard Musicians that will touch your audience like no other artists this year.
3pm A Celtic Christmas An hour-long holiday special featuring Irish storyteller Tomáseen Foley and his charming tale “Parcel from America.” The program also features music from guitarist William Coulter, fiddler Deby Benton Grojean, and piper Todd Denman, as well as songs from Moira Smiley.
5pm “Retro Cocktail Hour” Here you’ll find vintage recordings from the dawn of the Hi-Fi Era – imaginative, light-hearted (and sometimes lightheaded) pop stylings designed to underscore everything from the backyard barbecue to the high-tech bachelor pad.
7pm “Billy Foster Jazz Zone” The perfect holiday stocking stuffer. Hosted by Billy and Renee Foster, this is a two-hour program of music by top jazz musicians, Wynton Marsalis, Vincent Herring, Nnenna Freelon, Carmen Lundy, Charlie Parker, Tim Warfield and many more, playing their exciting arrangements of your favorite Christmas classics. This entertaining program includes quips, quotes and enlightening holiday wishes from your hosts. This is the third in a series by the Billy Foster Jazz Zone.
9pm “Afterglow- All is Quiet After Christmas” Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all you Great American Songbook fans out there. On this program, we’ll be celebrating the holiday with some familiar—and maybe a few unfamiliar—holiday songs sung by some beloved songbook singers, including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more. However, we’ll be turning down the volume a bit, playing all ballads and other slow sentimental Christmas tunes to help you relax this holiday season.
10pm “Night Lights” Night Lights celebrates the holidays with jazz from Fats Waller, Joe Williams, Claude Thornhill, and more
11pm “Sound Ideas” w/ Clay Ryder. As the end of the calendar year approaches, it’s time for another sampling of Christmas meets jazz improvisation.
12 Midnight-5am Overnight Jazz – Sounds of the Season. Sounds of the Season offers holiday (REAL) jazz, from swing-era recordings by Count Basie and Duke Ellington to recent releases by contemporary jazz artists.
for St. Petersburg, Florida