Holiday Specials

Daily 12/10-12/17 approximately 12:56-1:05pm

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah – the Festival of Lights – is celebrated over the course of eight nights. In a series of radio vignettes called The Eight Nights of Chanukah, WQXR’s Naomi Lewin tells the stories, and talks about the customs of the holiday, including the Chanukah miracle, lighting the menorah, traditional foods, and why Chanukah is so hard to spell. Each of The Eight Nights of Chanukah also contains music for the holiday.

Friday, 1/1/21, 11:00a.m. LIVE

The Vienna Philharmonic presents its annual New Year’s Day concert of waltzes, polkas and more from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein.

A musical celebration of the Winter holidays -- Christmas, the Solstice, Chanukah, New Year’s and Twelfth Night/Epiphany -- featuring traditional carols, wassails, hymns, children’s songs, and folk dance-tunes excerpted from live Christmas Revels stage productions presented around the country.

Lynne Warfel, host of Saturday Cinema, takes you on a one-hour musical retrospective of some of Hollywood's most cherished Christmas themed movies. Including scores from "Scrooge, the Musical", "A Muppet Christmas Carol", "The Polar Express", "It's A Wonderful Life" and many more.

This holiday season is like no other in recent memory, and now more than ever, we need the unifying power of choral music. The Rochester, NY chamber choir Madrigalia, and their Artistic Director Cary Ratcliff return to public radio for Christmas with Madrigalia 2020, a holiday concert that celebrates the power of music and the excitement and joy of the holiday season.

This one-hour program, recorded live in concert during the 2019 holiday season, features beautiful music by Stephen Paulus, Harold Darke, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Eriks Esenvalds, J.S. Bach and Vince Guaraldi, along with a number of Cary Ratcliff’s own arrangements.

Recorded in 2019 this performance of Handel’s Messiah features Rachele Gilmore, s; Andrey Nemzer, ct; Werner Gura, t; Alexander Elliott, bs; Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Matthew Mehaffey, dir; Manfred Honeck, cond)

This service in song and word has become one of the nation's most cherished holiday celebrations, and 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 St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Valerie Kahler hosts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the St. Olaf Christmas Festival concert will NOT be performed live.

Center Stage from Wolf Trap presents the Washington Symphonic Brass Holiday Special of traditional carols and classical favorites in some new arrangements.  Lee Anne Myslewski and Rich Kleinfeldt co-host.

Host Michael Barone presents this annual, live service of spoken-word and music (choral and organ) broadcast 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, carols and seasonal music.

Celebrate the season with song! Steve Staruch hosts this a cappella holiday of new and old favorites with the Minnesota based 12-man ensemble known as “an orchestra of voices.”