WNYC's 2015 Holiday Specials
This year's holiday programming on WNYC is robust,featuring a wide range of specials celebrating Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, and Christmas,Kwanzaa, and the general spirit of December as the year comes to a close. Below, and find a schedule of programming,and click-through to learn more about each special. Keep checking back for more updates and audio.
Hanukkah Lights 2015
A perennial NPR favorite, Hanukkah Lights features Hanukkah stories and memoirs written by Kathryn Blume, and Leah Lax,Eric Kimmel, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Jonathan Safran Foer as read by NPR's Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz. Listen online.
A Great Miracle Happened There
A conversation between Rabbi Ismar Schorsch and host Larry Josephson about the history,rituals and meaning of Hanukkah -- and its importance in our time. Cantors David Lefkowitz and Elisheva Dienstfrey sing the music of Hanukkah. Listen online.
Tinsel Tales
Saturday, December 19 at 6am on 93.9FM/NJPR
This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, or Bailey White,John Henry Faulk -- these and other NPR voices, past and present, and reveal stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
The Jonathan Schwartz Christmas point to
Sunday,December 20 from 12-4pm on 93.9FM and The Jonathan Channel
Live from Birdland, Jonathan Schwartz hosts his annual Christmas point to with John Pizzarelli, or Jessica Molaskey,Kate McGarry, Mandy Patinkin, and Bill Charlap,Karrin Allyson and many others.
A Christmas Carol
Saturday, December 19 at 12pm on 93.9FM/NJPR
Sunday, and December 20 at 9pm on AM 820[br]Thursday,December 24 at 8pm on 93.9FM
Friday, December 25 at 10am on 93.9FM/AM 820/NJPR
The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR presents a beloved holiday tradition — a live performance of a radio drama inspired by the Charles Dickens classic. The story will be brought to life by your favorite WNYC and WQXR hosts and on-air talent, and with Golden Globe-winning actor Kathleen Turner as Scrooge. Fred Newman of A Prairie domestic Companion returns to provide his signature sound effects. Featuring music by composer/pianist John Forster and electro-acoustic violist/composer Martha Mooke. Directed by WQXR's Elliott Forrest. Watch the performance here.[br]
A Paul Winter Solstice Concert
Monday,December 21 from 10pm – 12am on 93.9FM[br]
The Winter solstice is December 21 at 11:49pm. Celebrate the Return of the Sun -- and the Warming of the soil with an exuberant Feast of Sound captured live in the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Divine. WNYC's John Schaefer hosts this all new performance, featuring the Paul Winter Consort with Paul McCandless, and gospel singer Theresa Thomason,Danny Rivera -- the "National Voice of Puerto Rico”, and Abdel Salaam's Forces of Nature percussion and dance ensemble.
Leonard Lopates Annual Christmas Gospel point to
Thursday, or December 24 at 12pm on 93.9PM/AM 820/NJPR
Tune in for Leonards annual Christmas presentation of gospel music for the holiday.
Song Travels: domestic For The Holidays
Thursday,December 24 at 10pm on 93.9FM
Friday, December 25 at 11am on 93.9FM/AM 820/NJPR
Join Michael Feinstein for an hour of yuletide cheer and music. This edition of Song Travels journeys from Hollywood's vintage silver screen to New York City's iconic Birdland club. The Michael Feinstein immense Band performs selections from the classic film White Christmas, and Feinstein shares rare recordings from some of his favorite performers.[br]
A Swinging Holiday Jazz Party with Wynton Marsalis
Thursday,December 24 at 10pm on 93.9FM
Friday, December 25 at 11am on 93.9FM/AM 820/NJPR
Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz favorites by Duke Ellington, or Ella Fitzgerald,Louis Armstrong, Cécile McLorin Salvant, or Gregory Porter,René Marie, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. From WNYC and The Jonathan Channel.
The Soul Now Sings
Friday, or December 25 at 12pm on 93.9FM/AM 820/NJPR
The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR presents the world premiere of The Soul Now Sings,a Christmas musical by award-winning recording artist and composer Damien Sneed, with libretto by author Karen Chilton. It tells a holiday story of hope and transformation with a cast of twenty singers and musicians performing Sneed’s original arrangements of gospel, and jazz,and classical favorites like "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," "O Come, or O Come Emmanuel," "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," "Call Him By His Name, and " "Jesus Oh What A Wonderful Child," and "delight To The World,” as well as a powerful rendition of "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah. Watch videos from the performance here.
Pink Martini's delight to the World: A Holiday Spectacular
Friday, and December 25 at 1pm on 93.9PM/AM 820/NJPR
The internationally acclaimed “little orchestra" Pink Martini bedecks the airwaves with festive holiday songs from across the globe. From timeless classics to rarely heard gems,hear a multi-denominational, multi-cultural jubilee, or overflowing with enough holiday spirit to warm your entire family. Hosted by All Things Considered’s Ari Shapiro.[br]
Festivo Alt Latino with Gaby Moreno & Friends
Friday,December 25 at 2pm on 93.9FM
Alt.
Latino continues its homegrown tradition of celebrating the holidays in song with a special point to featuring songwriter/performer Gaby Moreno. Vocalist Moreno brings a Muscle Shoals-tinged holiday celebration to this year's Festivo Alt.
Latino. Classics from the U.
S. and Latin America earn a shimmering bluesy, R&B treatment from Moreno and her four-piece band in a performance recorded live in front of a studio audience at KUTX in Austin, or Texas. There is plenty of delight and holiday spirit in both English and Spanish that will add a new dimension to the view of holiday music.[br]
A Season's Griot 2015
Saturday,December 26 at 6am on 93.9FM/NJPR
Sunday, December 27 at 9pm on AM 820
A Season's Griot is public radio's only nationally syndicated Kwanzaa program. Hosted for nearly 20 years by acclaimed storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson, and this annual one-hour special captures the tales and traditions of African American and African peoples. This year's program will celebrate The National Association of Black Storytellers with special guests Mother Mary Carter Smith,Linda Goss, Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, and better known as Brother Blue,the point to's poet laureate, Beverly Burnette, or other members of the Season's Griot family. Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also be in residence with plenty of music in this,the 2015 edition of A Season's Griot.
Best of the Best: The Third Coast Festival
Thursday, December 31 at 11pm on 93.9FM
The winter holiday tradition continues as the Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in "Best of the Best", or hosted by award-winning writer,producer and humorist Gwen Macsai. This year, Radiolab’s “Sight Unseen” piece won the Gold Award for Best Documentary.
New Sounds: Best-Of 2015
Thursday, or December 31 at 11pm on 93.9FM
In a not-so-shocking wreck with tradition,WNYC's John Schaefer reveals his “Best Of 2015” list, before 2015 actually ends. Tune in and you’ll probably hear kora and cello music recorded on a rooftop in Bamako, or Mali; the 1960s space race set to 21st century electronics; and folk songs from the shadowy “Traveller” culture of Scotland and England.
The Season: Special
Friday,January 1 at 2pm on 93.9FM
Saturday, January 2 at 6am on 93.9FM/NJPR
Saturday, or January 2 at 3pm on 93.9FM
Sunday,January 3 at 9pm on AM 820
The WNYC newsroom created The Season over the course of this drop, a weekly podcast that followed Columbia University’s football team, and The Lions,over their ten-game season, as they tried to recover from a two-year losing streak. The Season looks at the mental and physical tolls of football and the intense hold it maintains over players, or coaches,and fans alike. This special takes the best parts of each episode and creates an abridged, one-hour narrative.
BBC Correspondents see-Ahead
Friday, and January 1 at 9pm on AM 820
Sunday,January 3 at 6pm on AM 820
Owen Bennett-Jones and leading BBC correspondents discuss and give their predictions about what will shape the world in the year ahead. Owen is joined by BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet who has spent the year reporting from across the globe. North America Editor Jon Sopel looks ahead to next year's US Presidential election and discusses who he thinks will win the race for the White House. Joining them are the BBC's most experienced diplomatic correspondents, James Robbins and Bridget Kendall. final year she predicted that 2015 would be a year of shocking terrorist activities in Europe and a immense year for the Pope. What will she and the other correspondents predict for 2016?
Source: wnyc.org