© 2024 WMRA and WEMC
WMRA : More News, Less Noise WEMC: The Valley's Home for Classical Music
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

WMRA/WEMC Holiday Schedule 2016

WMRA and WEMC Holiday Specials for 2016

Sunday, Dec. 18th
WEMC 7pm  A 20th Century English Christmas
This program celebrates the rich English choral tradition, and how it flourished in Christmas seasons throughout the 20th century.  Hear works by Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, William Walton and Elizabeth Poston, featuring performances by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, the Westminster Abbey Choir and the ensemble Polyphony.

Monday, Dec. ​19th
WEMC 6pm  A Chanticleer Christmas
Nothing signals the beginning of the holiday season like 12 men singing in beautifully blended harmony. A Chanticleer Christmas is a one-hour celebration of the season as told through the glorious voices of Chanticleer, the San Francisco-based men's choir.

WEMC 7pm  Bob's Record Shelf: Annual Christmas Program 
An evening of classical holiday works, with Benjamin Britten’s Cantata Saint Nicholas, featured at 8pm.

Tuesday, Dec. 20th
WEMC 6pm  Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Join the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir, accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square, for their annual Christmas concert.

WEMC 7pm  A 20th Century English Christmas
This program celebrates the rich English choral tradition, and how it flourished in Christmas seasons throughout the 20th century.  Hear works by Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, William Walton and Elizabeth Poston, featuring performances by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, the Westminster Abbey Choir and the ensemble Polyphony.

Wednesday, Dec. 21st 
WEMC 6pm  Welcome Christmas!
It's an hour of joyful holiday music featuring one of the world's premiere choral groups, VocalEssence, led by Philip Brunelle.

Thursday, Dec. 22nd 
WEMC 1pm  A 20th Century English Christmas
This program celebrates the rich English choral tradition, and how it flourished in Christmas seasons throughout the 20th century.  Hear works by Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, William Walton and Elizabeth Poston, featuring performances by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, the Westminster Abbey Choir and the ensemble Polyphony.

WEMC 6pm  Hollywood Holiday
An hour of holiday movie music that ranges from the sentimental to the completely cranky. From "White Christmas" and cozy homes for the holidays, to Grinches and Scrooges, Hollywood Holiday takes in your favorite holiday movies from a musical point of view.

Friday, Dec. 23rd
WEMC 6pm  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, and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians who are members of five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.

Saturday, Dec. 24th
WEMC 10am A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Hosted by Michael Barone, this music and spoken-word broadcast comes from the chapel of King's College in Cambridge, England. The 30-voice King's College Choir performs the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service of Biblical readings and music.

WMRA 12pm  Paul Winter's 36th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration
Celebrate the return of the sun and the warming of the heart with Paul Winter's All New 36th Winter Solstice Celebration. On the darkest night of the year, we head back to New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine to hear The Paul Winter Consort and the glorious Cathedral Pipe Organ. The performance brings traditional holiday favorites and new sounds from around the world with special guests Ivan Lins and RenatoBraz.

WMRA 2pm  All Songs Considered for the Holidays
Host Bob Boilen has had it with the holidays. He storms out of the studio and finds himself taking a Dickensian journey, with visits from some old friends including Carrie Brownstein, Dan Auerbach, Aimee Mann, Ben Folds, and more. And um, they will also play the usual unusual holiday songs.

WEMC 5pm A Baroque Christmas in The New World 2016
In celebration of the holiday season, A Baroque Christmas in the New World 2016 brings your listeners music from 17th- and 18th-century Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, including a cantata and three free-standing works by Sumaya - most of which comes from the only surviving manuscript in full-score in Sumaya's own hand.

WEMC 6pm Christmas with Morehouse & Spelman Glee Clubs
One of the great holiday traditions in America, the choirs of Morehouse and Spelman Colleges -- two of the most prestigious historically black institutions in the nation -- get together to present a spine-tingling concert program. This encore presentation features the best works of the last several years. It's a joyous celebration of the schools' tradition of singing excellence, with their trademark mixture of spirituals and carols. Korva Coleman hosts.

WEMC 7pm Carols & Cheer
The BBC's Scott Blankenship and Matt Culloton team up to review their favorite carols for the holiday season. Utterly "sing-a-long-able", their top picks will include the best of the Christmas season as performed by the leading artists and ensembles of today.

WEMC 8pm A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Hosted by Michael Barone, this music and spoken-word broadcast comes from the chapel of King's College in Cambridge, England. The 30-voice King's College Choir performs the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service of Biblical readings and music.

Sunday, Dec. 25th
WMRA 3pm  Tinsel Tales - NPR Christmas Favorites
Audie Cornish, Ken Harbaugh, Nina Totenberg and other voices from NPR's past and present tell stories of the season in this hour-long special. Some tales are funny; some are touching; some are insightful or irreverent or nostalgic or surprising. You might recognize them from our broadcast archives - or you might fall in love with them for the first time. Hosted by Lynn Neary.

WEMC 7pm  The Christmas Story through Carols Old and New
This hour long choral music show tells the Christmas story through a variety of carols.  Each set focuses on a different part of the story, from the angels to Mary and the baby, the shepherds and how they spread the word of Jesus' birth.

Tuesday, Dec. 27th
WEMC 7pm  The Christmas Story through Carols Old and New
This hour long choral music show tells the Christmas story through a variety of carols.  Each set focuses on a different part of the story, from the angels to Mary and the baby, the shepherds and how they spread the word of Jesus' birth.

Thursday, Dec. 29th
WEMC 1pm  The Christmas Story through Carols Old and New
This hour long choral music show tells the Christmas story through a variety of carols.  Each set focuses on a different part of the story, from the angels to Mary and the baby, the shepherds and how they spread the word of Jesus' birth.

Sunday, Jan. 1st
WMRA 3pm The Capitol Steps: Politics Takes a Holiday New Year’s Edition 2016
Help say good-bye and good riddance to 2016 with the Capitol Steps and their annual year-end review. You don't need to win the Electoral College to proclaim laughter is exactly what 2017 needs! It's all in their hour-long special of "Politics Takes a Holiday."

WEMC 7pm  Famous Firsts
Happy New Year!  For the first week of 2017, here's a program of famous firsts - from Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, and Debussy.  They're famous not just because they're the first of their kind -  they're famous because they're stunning pieces of music.

WEMC 8pm  New Year's Day from Vienna 2016
The Vienna Philharmonic presents its ever popular annual New Year's Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. You'll hear your favorite waltzes, polkas and more -- a festive way to start off the New Year.

Tuesday, Jan. 3rd
WEMC 7pm  Famous Firsts
Happy New Year!  For the first week of 2017, here's a program of famous firsts - from Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, and Debussy.  They're famous not just because they're the first of their kind -  they're famous because they're stunning pieces of music.

Thursday, Jan. 5th
WEMC 1pm  Famous Firsts
Happy New Year!  For the first week of 2017, here's a program of famous firsts - from Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, and Debussy.  They're famous not just because they're the first of their kind -  they're famous because they're stunning pieces of music.

Matt Bingay is the Executive Director and General Manager for WMRA and WEMC.