KCBX offers up a stocking full of special programs to accompany your holiday activities. Many of our regular show hosts will feature holiday music and talk, and we'll also offer the following specials between now and New Year's Day.
Winter Solstice, Wednesday, December 21
6:30-8:30 p.m. Paul Winter's Annual Winter Solstice Celebration
Celebrate the Return of the Sun -- and the Warming of the heart with Paul Winter's Annual 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 Renato Braz. Hosted by John Schaefer.
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24
6:30-7:30 p.m. Center Stage From Wolf Trap: Christmas with Calmus
The Calmus Ensemble, an award-winning a cappella quintet from Leipzig, Germany presents a program featuring sacred and secular carols spanning the centuries from Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and the Americas.
10:00-11:00 p.m. 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. 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. Hosted by Michele Norris.
11:00 p.m.-midnight Christmas with the 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.
Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25
Midnight-1:00 a.m. Jazz Piano Christmas
Join the Kennedy Center and NPR Music for a special family affair at this year's holiday concert that features Chicagoans Willie Pickens and daughter Bethany Pickens, plus husband and wife Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes. Hosted by Felix Contreras.
2:00-4:00 p.m. St. Olaf Christmas Special
This service in song and word at at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. The festival 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.
4:00-5:00 p.m. Tinsel Tales
This program features stories of the season from the NPR archives. Some are funny, others are touching or irreverant. Featuring David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk and other NPR voices, past and present. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
6:00-7:00 p.m. Selected Shorts: "Ho, Ho, Huh?"
Guest host Jane Kaczmarek presents four Christmas-themed works to bring you comfort, joy, and a little sass:
- Ron Carlson’s “The H Street Sledding Record,” is a charming and funny tale about a family preparing for an annual ritual—and a big change. It’s read by Keith Szarabajka.
- Frank O’Connor’s “Christmas Morning” gives us a richly detailed picture of a family in turn-of-the-century Ireland, but this family’s Christmas is overshadowed by poverty. Reader Malachy McCourt knows this landscape well.
- Next, a whimsical comedy from a different era, George Shepherd’s “Occurrence on the Six Seventeen,” from 1939: sober, self-absorbed commuters, “with necks that know exactly how long they must be pressed against the seat back”, briefly unite in Christmas joie de vivre. The reader is Tony Roberts.
- And finally, humorist Calvin Trillin is dreaming of the perfect Christmas—anywhere but here. His witty ditty “Christmas in Qatar” bemoans meaningless gifts, underdone feasts, and appalling relations.
New Year's Eve, Saturday, December 31
6:30-7:30 a.m. Candles Burning Brightly, a Hanukkah special
Mindy Ratner and Bill Morelock host a one-hour celebration of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, with an exploration of Hanukkah foods and traditional activities ... and plenty of music. You'll hear traditional folk melodies, choral compositions for the holiday, and contemporary songs.
10:00-11:00 a.m. Capitol Steps: Politics Takes a Holiday
This New Year's Eve, celebrate our country by helping the Capitol Steps make fun of it! You don't need to win the Electoral College to proclaim laughter is exactly what 2017 needs! All your election favorites will be there: President Elect Trump, Hillary, Bernie Sanders, Vladimir Putin...wait, what?!? Let's not let the election divide us any further. Tune in, and let's unite in laughter! And for goodness sake, can someone give Merrick Garland a hug?
7:00 p.m-1:00 a.m. 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, anytime. Spirited, improvised, and swinging, each segment stops in a Blue Note venue throughout the country and the world! We’ll hear sets from The Dirty Dozen Brass Band in Hawaii, Joshua Redman and Brad Meldau in Tokyo, pianist Fred Hersch in Beijing, Ron Carter and Buika in New York City, and Dee Dee Bridgewater from Blue Note Napa.
New Year's Day, Sunday, January 1, 2017
Noon-2:00 p.m. New Year's Day from Vienna
This year's New Year’s Day concert from Vienna promises to be epoch making. The program from the Muzikverein will be conducted by LA Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel is the first Latin-born and the youngest conductor in the 75 year history of the tradition. The 2017 New Year’s concert features the first appearance of the Vienna Singverein, the Muzikverein’s 230 strong concert choir and works from five composers, in addition to the traditional Strauss family. You'll hear plenty of waltzes, polkas, and more -- a festive way to start off the New Year. Hosted by WBUR's Lisa Mullins.
6:00-7:00 p.m. Hanukkah Lights
A perennial NPR favorite with all new Hanukkah stories. Authors include R.L. Maizes, Elisa Albert, Ellen Orleans, and Lia Pripstein. Hosted by Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz.