2023-24 Holiday Specials
Join us throughout the month of December, as well as on New Year's Day 2024, for holiday favorites to help celebrate the season. Some of the highlights for this holiday season include Hanukkah Lights 2023, holiday music from our local classical and jazz hosts, and the live broadcasts of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and New Year's Day from Vienna!
Sunday, December 31st
11pm-1am – Toast of the Nation
An NPR tradition every New Year's Eve since the 1970s, Toast of the Nation is the perfect audio complement for the occasion. It's festive jazz you can party to, all night long.
Sunday, January 1st
11am-1pm – New Year’s Day from Vienna 2024
The ever-popular annual New Year’s Day Concert will be 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.
Previously Aired:
Sunday, December 3rd
1-2pm – Jonathan Winters’ A Christmas Carol
An updated version of a public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Susan Stamberg. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. Also featuring Mimi Kennedy.
Sunday, December 10th
1-2pm – Hanukkah Lights
This NPR favorite returns with the best of the best Hanukkah Lights stories plus a special musical performance by The LeeVees. Hosted by Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz.
Monday, December 11th
8-9pm – The Ballad of the Brown King
Dr. Louise Toppin, a noted performer and scholar who specializes in the concert repertoire of African American composers, presents Margaret Bonds’s The Ballad of the Brown King. With a libretto by Langston Hughes, this Christmas cantata which focuses on Balthazar, the dark-skinned king who journeyed to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus Christ. It is beautifully interpreted by New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, soloists soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and tenor Noah Stewart, led by Malcolm J. Merriweather.
9-10pm – A Choral Christmas with Stile Antico
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.
Tuesday, December 12th
8-9pm - A Chanukah Celebration with Chicago a cappella
Join Jonathan Miller, artistic director of Chicago a cappella and a longtime champion of Jewish choral music, for an inspiring and informative show featuring choral music set to Chanukah texts. All selections are performed by Chicago a cappella, the virtuoso vocal ensemble now in its 23rd season. Jonathan Miller provides liturgical and cultural background as part of this unique look inside old and newer choral Chanukah traditions.
9-10pm – An Afro Blue Christmas
Join us for a very special holiday concert with Howard University's premiere vocal ensemble Afro Blue and special guest pianist Cyrus Chestnut. Hear the a-cappella group perform a variety of holiday songs including African-American spirituals, jazz and pop tunes, and classical repertoire. Hosted by Michele Norris, the joyous celebration includes one of a kind arrangements on traditional holiday songs plus new compositions…music perfect for the holidays and the spirit of Christmas.
Wednesday, December 13th
8-9pm - A Chanticleer Christmas
This one-hour program of holiday favorites, new and old, was recorded live in concert by Chanticleer, the superb 12-man ensemble known as "an orchestra of voices."
9-10pm – All Is Bright
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.
Thursday, December 14th
8-9pm - UT Concert Hall: 35th Annual Jazz for Tots
Tune-in to hear the 35th Annual "Jazz for Tots" program, presented in Powell Recital Hall on November 27th, 2023. Student jazz combos will perform a few Christmas favorites, as well as some non-holiday selections. UT Jazz faculty members will also perform a favorite holiday tune at the end of the show.
9-10pm – Candles Burning Brightly
A delightful hour for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights! There is lots of music from Jewish communities worldwide, a hilarious lesson on preparing a classic Hanukkah dish, and a timeless and touching holiday story that brings light into every home.
Sunday, December 17th
1-2pm – Christmas with the Morehouse and 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. Korva Coleman hosts 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.
7-8pm - UT Concert Hall: 35th Annual Jazz for Tots
Tune-in to hear the 35th Annual "Jazz for Tots" program, presented in Powell Recital Hall on November 27th, 2023. Student jazz combos will perform a few Christmas favorites, as well as some non-holiday selections. UT Jazz faculty members will also perform a favorite holiday tune at the end of the show.
Monday, December 18th
8-9pm – Christmas with the Imani Winds
Join us for a new Christmas special featuring the Imani Winds. This ensemble The embraces traditional chamber music repertoire, and newly commissioned works from voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live.
9-10pm – Welcome Christmas
There’s no better way to welcome Christmas than Welcome Christmas!, the VocalEssence holiday concert. It’s an hour of joyful, classic holiday music from VocalEssence, one of the world’s premiere choral groups, singing traditional carols and new discoveries.
Tuesday, December 19th
8-10pm – We bring you the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s November 2023 Classical Christmas: Messiah Concert, performed in the Tennessee Theatre.
Wednesday, December 20th
8-10pm – St. Olaf Christmas Festival
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.
Thursday, December 21st
7-8pm – Jazz Piano Christmas
Your favorite holiday classics as you’ve never heard them! The Kennedy Center and NPR present A Jazz Piano Christmas, the annual sell-out event featuring jazz-infused renditions of the season’s most-loved music, hosted by Felix Contreras. This year, we spotlight remarkable pianist, vocalist, and actress Melvis Santa—whose eclectic Afro-Cuban style has made her one of the most electrifying artists on the scene—in addition to internationally acclaimed Cuban composer and jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez.
8-9pm - UT Concert Hall: Winter Choral Concert
The choral ensembles at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will perform favorite holiday selections in a concert that was given in Cox Auditorium on November 28, 2023. Included on the program is "Hava Nageela", "Coventry Carol", "Jingle Bells", "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", "Light the Legend" and much more!
9-10pm – A Paul Winter Solstice
This year, Solstice Live! warms up the longest night of the year with a taste of the tropics. John Schaefer hosts this one-hour Winter Solstice special, which brings a starry array of Brazilian guests, including Ivan Lins, Renato Braz, and Luciana Souza, with the Paul Winter Consort at the annual solstice concerts in New York’s Cathedral of St John the Divine.
Friday, December 22nd
7-8pm – Holiday Jazz with Dee Alexander
Beloved Chicago vocalist and Jazz Network host Dee Alexander entertains and enchants with songs and reminiscences of holidays past, in a performance recorded at WFMT’s Fay & Daniel Levin Performance Studio, with support from longtime collaborators pianist Miguel de la Cerna, bassist Junius Paul and drummer Yussef Ernie Adams. Holiday favorites abound, including “White Christmas,” “Coventry Carol,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and show-stopping renditions of spirituals inspired by Chicago gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.
Saturday, December 23rd
8-9pm – The Thistle & Shamrock Presents ‘A Child’s Christmas In Wales'
Cerys Matthews is Welsh musician and patron of the Dylan Thomas Society. In this program, she narrates excerpts from the Dylan Thomas holiday classic, set to music that she created and recorded with her collaborator Mason Neely.
Sunday, December 24th
10am-12pm - A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (Live)
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.
Sunday, December 24th
1-2pm - A Chanticleer Christmas (repeat)
This one-hour program of holiday favorites, new and old, was recorded live in concert by Chanticleer, the superb 12-man ensemble known as "an orchestra of voices."
7-8pm - UT Concert Hall: Winter Choral Concert
The choral ensembles at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will perform favorite holiday selections in a concert that was given in Cox Auditorium on November 28, 2023. Included on the program is "Hava Nageela", "Coventry Carol", "Jingle Bells", "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", "Light the Legend" and much more!
Monday, December 25th
9am-12pm and 1-4pm – Holiday Music
7-8pm – Jazz Piano Christmas (repeat)
Your favorite holiday classics as you’ve never heard them! The Kennedy Center and NPR present A Jazz Piano Christmas, the annual sell-out event featuring jazz-infused renditions of the season’s most-loved music, hosted by Felix Contreras. This year, we spotlight remarkable pianist, vocalist, and actress Melvis Santa—whose eclectic Afro-Cuban style has made her one of the most electrifying artists on the scene—in addition to internationally acclaimed Cuban composer and jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez.