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Holiday Programming

Holiday Programming

2021 Holiday Season

Join WWFM as we present a variety of musical specials for the holidays.

Friday Dec. 17

6 pm - B&K Holiday Special
Bill McGlaughlin (host of Exploring Music) and Karrin Allyson bring a cozy hour of holiday music and conversation.

8 pm – An Evening of Readings and Carols - Westminster Choir College
Enjoy this year's joyful return to Princeton University Chapel of this cherished holiday tradition. Seven choirs and soprano Laquita Mitchell perform.

10 pm –Millennium of Music: A German Christmas
Music from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century featuring the Saxony Vocal Ensemble and the Schola Heidelberg.


Saturday Dec. 18

1 pm – Listener Request Hour
Today's Request Hour features Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.

6 pm – Picture Perfect with Ross Amico: TV Christmas Specials
Enjoy classic favorites from TV Christmas specials including music from “The Snowman” (Howard Blake), “The Homecoming” (Jerry Goldsmith), “A Christmas Carol” (Bernard Herrmann), and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (Vince Guaraldi).  

7 pm – A Tempo with Rachel Katz
Host Rachel Katz wraps up her series exploring how choral ensembles are returning to the stage for the holiday season with performances including Messiah sing-ins and other traditionalholiday favorites. This week features an interview with Malcolm Merriweather, music director of The Dessoff Choirs, which will present a concert featuring Margaret Bonds' The Ballad of the Brown King on Dec. 19.


Sunday Dec. 19

1 pm – With Heart and Voice
Choral and orchestral works celebrating the Fourth week of Advent and Christmas.

2 pm – Sounds Choral
Host Ryan Brandau, Music Director of Princeton Pro Musica and Monmouth Civic Chorus, shares some of his holiday favorites, including motets, carols and Bonds' The Ballad of the Brown King.

3 pm – The Sunday Opera with Michael Kownacky
The Pulitzer Prize-winning opera "Silent Night" by Kevin Puts, inspired by the tragic, short-lived peace during WWI. Following the opera, stay tuned for more music for the season.

7 pm – The Dress Circle with Ted Otten and Michael Kownacky
An hour of holiday memories with songs from "Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates", "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Stingiest Man in Town," as well as a performance of Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Lionel Barrymore.

10 pm – The Lost Chord with Ross Amico: Christmas Roses
A Christmas bouquet featuring Hugo Distler's “Die Weihnachtsgeschichte” (“The Christmas Story”), an otherworldly, a cappella masterpiece punctuated by seven variations on the carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” (“Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming”), and Emil Waldteufel’s waltz, “Roses de Noël.”


Monday Dec. 20

11 am – Pipedreams with Michael Barone
An American Organist's Christmas featuring holiday music in performances featuring performers, composers and organ builders in the U.S.
 

Wednesday Dec. 22, 2021

8 pm – The New York Philharmonic This Week
A Winter Holiday Jukebox, featuring a mix of holiday songs to celebrate the season.

Thursday Dec. 23, 2021

12 pm – A Soulful Christmas
This program presents an uplifting, relevant display of Black music in the classical, gospel, spiritual, and jazz-inspired style. This special celebrates the non-idiomatic Black classical music, while exploring non-idiomatic choral traditions. (From American Public Media)

Friday Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve

10 am – A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Cambridge
 (From American Public Media)

2 pm – A Chanticleer Christmas - Hear why this superb 12-man ensemble is known as "an orchestra of voices," as they perform holiday classics and new favorites, with choral commentary by host Steve Staruch. (From American Public Media)

6 pm – The Princeton Singers - "A Christmas Carol"
Join The Princeton Singers and actor Christopher Coucill for  Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol."

8 pm – The Princeton Singers
Dr. Steven Sametz directs The Princeton Singers in this concert entitled "What Sweeter Music."

10 pm – St. Olaf Christmas Festival
A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra. (From American Public Media)



Saturday Dec. 25 - Christmas Day

8 am – Festival Service of Christmas Lessons & Carols from Trinity Church Princeton

12 pm - Welcome Christmas with VocalEssence
An hour of traditional carols and new discoveries with VocalEssence, one of the world's premiere choral groups.

1 pm - Christmas Request Hour
David Osenberg hosts this special two-hour edition of our Saturday Listener Request program, sharing Christmas and holiday requests that have come in from listeners.

3 pm – Westminster Choir College Readings and Carols
Enjoy this year's joyful return to Princeton University Chapel of this cherished holiday tradition. Seven choirs and soprano Laquita Mitchell perform.

5 pm – Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square
The Tabernacle Choir continues its tradition of great artistry with touching arrangements of familiar carols, and surprises with lesser-known melodies that will surely become new classics.

6 pm - Picture Perfect with Ross Amico
Music from some of the most beloved holiday movies, including "A Christmas Carol," "Miracle on 34th Street," and "Home Alone."

7:30 pm – Inside Music with George Marriner Maull
Hallelujah! - Part 2.

8 pm – Bach Choir of Bethlehem
The choir performs JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

10 pm – A Chanticleer Christmas (Rebroadcast)


Sunday Dec. 26

11 am - All is Bright: Contemplative Music for Christmas
Lynne Warfel hosts an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angles, the star and the manger scene.

3 pm - Sunday Opera
Join us for a charming fantasy for the holiday with Hans Pfitzner’s “Das Christ-Elflein.” 

7 pm – The Dress Circle with Ted Otten and Michael Kownacky
An hour of holiday memories, part 2, including a 1953 radio production of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” featuring Sir Laurence Olivier.

Saturday Jan. 1, 2021

10 am – New Year's from Vienna
Welcome 2022 with this annual broadcast from the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.