WRR101 celebrates the holiday season again with All Holiday, All the Time. Join WRR hosts as they play classical favorites for yet another reason to enjoy the season.
Holiday Program Highlights:
NOVEMBER
Thanksgiving
The celebration begins the week of Thanksgiving as WRR101 hosts and staff give thanks to YOU, WRR’s new members and sponsors. Centered around the themes of harvest and gratitude, this thank-a-thon celebrates sponsors and the First Chair members who joined during WRR’s inaugural year as a non-commercial station.
Black Friday
Join WRR101 at the most British spot in the metroplex – The British Emporium – for their annual Thanksgiveaway! The event gets underway at 9am on Friday, November 24 and the store will be stocked full of treats and unique Christmas gifts to buy for the Anglophile in your life. The first 100 people to spend $20 will receive a goodie bag of British treats! WRR’s Amy Bishop and KERA’s Bill Young will also be on site until 11am. Location: 140 N. Main St., Grapevine
Christmas and Sounds of the Season
The day after Thanksgiving, WRR101 switches to classical holiday offerings with All Holiday, All the Time through New Year’s Day.
DECEMBER
Sounds of the Season continues all-month long!
The day after Thanksgiving, WRR101 transitions to its classical holiday offerings with All Holiday, All the Time. This will continue through New Year’s Day with holiday music offered through January 1.
Hanukkah on WRR101
This will be a bittersweet holiday for many people celebrating the Festival of Lights, but WRR will provide comfort and peace through music and programs that honor the Jewish experience.
Solstice
As autumn changes to winter on the evening of December 21, WRR will usher in the season with two programs to celebrate the longest night of the year, including a performance from the Houston production of “The Christmas Revels.”
Christmas Day Plan
Throughout the day on December 25, WRR will offer its warm, cozy seasonal music mix with nothing to interrupt the perfect holiday mood. At 6:00pm, we’ll offer one of the most loved of all choral holiday concerts, from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. At 8:00pm, the Dallas Winds present their holiday program from the Meyerson in a full WRR Concert Hall performance.
Kwanzaa
WRR will feature a special program at 1:00pm from December 26 through January 1 focusing on the specific principle of each day and elements of the celebration. The segments are hosted by acclaimed soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, and baritone Eric Logan, with music by Valerie Coleman. There will also be a special hour-long program on December 31 in which Garrett McQueen offers a background on the history of Kwanzaa and its guiding principles, alongside musical selections that highlight the spirit of the celebration.
New Year’s Celebration
The final week of the year will continue holiday music and begin transitioning to music that celebrates the New Year!
Listeners will continue to hear seasonal music the week after Christmas and leading up to the New Year. In addition, between Tuesday, December 26 and Saturday, December 30, we will broadcast listener-selected favorites of classical music as determined in the WRR101 Classical Countdown that we held over Labor Day Weekend. We also urge listeners to become WRR Members or to enhance their previous contribution as we celebrate our successful first year as a listener-supported nonprofit radio station.
ALL MONTH LONG:
Throughout the month, WRR hosts add their personal spin as they play their holiday favorites:
- Morning Classical Host Kurt Rongey spotlights new holiday releases as some of the greatest performers in the world continue to observe their own holiday traditions through their music.
- At Work Host Amy Bishop spotlights performances by artists from North Texas that have become such an important part of WRR’s holiday music tapestry over the years.
- Afternoon Host Emilio Alvarez spotlights the diversity of artists and their backgrounds performing and creating music to celebrate the season.
- Evening Host Matt Rogers spotlights favorite musical moments from the soundtracks of holiday movies.
- Weekends with David Ginder and Nicki Velonis spotlight choral works and favorite solo vocal performances.
- And, of course, WRR101 airs holiday episodes of audience-favorite programs:
- Classics for Kids
- Special programs for Hanukkah on December 16
- Special programs for Christmas on December 23
- Performance Today
- Concierto
- Pipedreams
- With Heart and Voice
WRR on KERA TV
This new series pairing WRR with KERA TV continues through the holidays. On Sundays, WRR hosts introduce arts programs for music lovers on KERA TV. In December, WRR on KERA will feature:
Tuesday, December 12 at 7pm: A Preston Hollow Christmas with John Rutter
Tuesday, December 12 at 8pm: Season of Light: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Monday, January 1 at 7pm: From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration
WRR 101 will broadcast the audio of these holiday performance specials airing on KERA TV.
Holiday-Specific Radio Specials on WRR
As part of the holiday celebration, WRR101 broadcasts seasonal radio programs that celebrate the diversity of our holiday traditions, families and region:
Sun, 12/24/23
Sounds of the Holidays
3:00pm
On Christmas Eve, Quin Mathews presents Sounds of the Holidays. It is a seasonal music program, Texas-style, featuring local performances and North Texas musicians playing in other parts of the world. Long-time listeners will remember Quin for his in-depth local arts reporting on the WRR’s Art Matters.
Thu 11/23/2023
Every Good Thing
8:00pm – 9:00pm
On Thanksgiving, host Andrea Blain and classical music fans from all around the country take time to give thanks and celebrate one of life’s most meaningful gifts: music. It is “Every Good Thing” — an hour of stories and music to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Thu 12/7/2023
Eternal Echoes for Hanukkah with Itzhak Perlman
8:00pm – 9:00pm
Violinist Itzhak Perlman and Jewish music scholar and performer Hankus Netsky join host James David Jacobs for an hour of songs and stories celebrating the holiday known as “The Festival of Lights.”
Sun 12/10/2023
Candles Burning Brightly
8:00pm – 9:00pm
A delightful hour for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights with music from Jewish communities around the world, plus a hilarious lesson on how to prepare a classic Chanukah dish, and a timeless and touching holiday story that brings light into every home.
Mon 12/11/2023 – Fri 12/22/2023 (weekday mornings only)
Yuletide Countdown
8:30am – 8:35am
WRR counts down the top 10 favorite holiday selections chosen by our listeners through online voting.
Mon 12/11/2023 – Fri 12/15/2023
12:00pm – 1:00pm
The beloved holiday tradition continues! This series of five hourlong programs featuring local music groups broadcasts live from the Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District.
- Mon 12/11/2023 – Booker T. Washington students and UNT’s Voices of Praise
- Tue 12/12/2023 – Turtle Creek Chorale
- Wed 12/13/2023 – Women’s Chorus and Paul Quinn College Choir
- Thu 12/14/2023 – Verdigris and Temple Emanu-el
- Fri 12/15/2023 – TX Boys Choir & Singing Girls of TX
Caroling in the Arts District is sponsored by the Friends of WRR
Sat 12/16/2023
Classics for Kids
11:00am – 11:06am
Classics for Kids celebrates Hanukkah by learning about some Jewish composers of classical music, including Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud, Jacques Offenbach and Aaron Copland. Join Naomi Lewin for Classics for Kids.
Wed 12/20/2023
This is Christmas with the Imani Winds
8:00pm – 9:00pm
Join us for a new Christmas special featuring the Imani Winds. Hosted by Scott Blankenship, known for his has work in commissioning new music by composers of color and women. He also writes for the Rhapsody in Black podcast.
Thu 12/21/2023
The Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice 2023
9:00pm – 10:00pm
A musical celebration of the winter holidays – Advent, Chanukah, the Solstice, Christmas, New Year’s and Twelfth Night/Epiphany — featuring traditional carols, hymns, villancicos, ballads, children’s game-songs, and folk dance-tunes excerpted from live Christmas Revels stage productions presented around the country.
Thu 12/21/2023
A Winter’s Solstice
10:00pm – 11:00pm
A winter solstice program, with modern classical sounds for the longest night of the year, chosen especially to complement the chilly, starry nights of the season.
Fri 12/22/2023
All Is Bright
8:00pm – 9:00pm
All Is Bright, with host Lynne Warfel, offers an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angels, the star and the manger scene.
Fri 12/22/2023
A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico
9:00pm – 10:00pm
Celebrate Christmas with the sound of soaring voices. Stile Antico, the award-winning choir from London, pays a visit to St. Paul’s Church on Harvard Square for a concert of radiant sacred music for the Christmas season by the most acclaimed composers of the renaissance. Hear the group’s luminous blend of voices sing the intricately woven music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. Hosted by Cathy Fuller.
Sat 12/23/2023
Classics for Kids
11:00am – 11:06am
Listen closely and hear Christmas carols in classical compositions on Classics for Kids, carols for the holiday!
Sat 12/23/2023
Christmas with Morehouse and Spelman Glee Clubs
8:00pm – 9:00pm
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 year’s program 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.
Sun 12/24/2023
Sounds of the Holidays
3:00pm – 3:30pm
Quin Mathews presents a seasonal music program, Texas-style, featuring local performances and North Texas musicians playing in other parts of the world. Long-time listeners will remember Quin for his in-depth local arts reporting on WRR’s Art Matters.
La Nochebuena: A Spanish Renaissance Christmas with the Rose Ensemble
5:00pm – 6:00pm
The acclaimed Rose Ensemble is back again for another one-hour special for the holiday season. In La Nochebuena, Twin Cities early music group The Rose Ensemble explores the wide variety of music that filled the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella and flooded the chapels and streets of Renaissance Spain. Get ready to be transported to a time and place when the sacred met the earthy in celebration of the season.
Sun 12/24/2023
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
8:00pm – 10:00pm
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols presents your audience with an opportunity to share in a live, world-wide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal Classical music. This special will be presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue, the 500-year-old Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England.
Mon 12/25/2023
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. Started in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf College Music Department, the festival includes hymns, carols, choral works and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity. It features the St. Olaf Choir, the St. Olaf Orchestra, the St. Olaf Cantorei, the St. Olaf Chapel Choir, the Manitou Singers and the Viking Chorus, performing as individual groups and as a massed ensemble.
Mon 12/25/2023
Christmas with the Dallas Winds – A Special WRR Concert Hall Presentation
8:00pm – 10:00pm
12/26/2023 until 1/1/2024, daily
The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa
1:00pm to 1:03pm
The Pan-African festival of Kwanzaa celebrates family and community and observed every December 26 to January 1. This series of seven short features, one for each day of Kwanzaa focuses on the specific principle of each day and elements of the celebration, hosted by acclaimed soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, and baritone Eric Logan. The music in the segments is Valerie Coleman’s Umoja, based on the first principle of Kwanzaa – Umoja, or Unity, performed by the Imani Winds.
Sun 12/31/2023
The Sounds of Kwanzaa
5:00pm – 6:00pm
Garrett McQueen offers a background on the history of Kwanzaa and its guiding principles, alongside musical selections that highlight the spirit of the celebration. The show features the compositions of Florence Price, Duke Ellington, Sean O’Loughlin, and special performances by Imani Winds.
Mon 1/1/2024
New Year’s Day from Vienna 2024
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Join us for the ever-popular annual New Year’s Day Concert performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Christian Thielemann. With this concert it is not only the desire of the Vienna Philharmonic to provide musically definitive interpretations of the masterworks of this genre, but also, as musical ambassadors of Austria, to send people all over the world a New Year’s greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace.
