We are celebrating the season with a number of special programs.
Dec. 24
9am LIVE – FESTIVAL OF NINE LESSONS - 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.
11am Sharing Traditions and Carols of Christmas - The holiday season is a time spent with family and friends – making memories and starting traditions.
Join KWBU for Sharing Traditions and Carols of Christmas – a program featuring music of the season along with delightful conversation between award winning songwriter of contemporary Christian Music, Kurt Kaiser – and his daughter Kris.
12pm Christmas with Tabernacle - The sounds of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square floated into many homes during the holidays in the '60s & '70s on Goodyear and Firestone albums, bringing lush renditions of favorite Christmas carols. Those warm memories and feelings come right back again in this holiday special. The choir continues its tradition of great artistry with touching arrangements of familiar carols, and surprises with lesser-known melodies that are fast becoming the new classics.
1pm St. Olaf Christmas Festival - The St. Olaf Christmas Festival is a chance for listeners across the country and around the world to participate in one of the nation’s most treasured holiday celebrations. Programming includes sacred choral and instrumental music from many traditions: beloved hymns, classical masterworks, folk songs from around the world, and African-American spirituals.
3pm 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. From NPR and KCRW.
6pm Special Christmas presentation from SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - The hour will include spirituals and gospel songs, sung and reimagined by the greatest gospel artists of the Golden Age of gospel, all of whom used their distinctive voices to re-tell the greatest story ever told. Join host Robert Darden for this Christmas presentation from SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments.
7pm Soulful Christmas - A Soulful Christmas is an uplifting, relevant display of Black music in the classical, gospel, spiritual, and jazz-inspired style. This special celebrates the non-idiomatic Black classical music, while exploring non-idiomatic choral traditions. Guest details to be announced.
8pm David and Art Holiday Jazz - Jazz is one of the most distinctive of all American art forms, and when jazz players turn loose on Christmas tunes, the result can be a new classic. Whether the music is religious or secular, trumpeters, sax players, guitarists, pianists, and cooking rhythm sections make Christmas the coolest of the holidays. Even in Texas.
9pm Selected Shorts (Christmas show)
10pm Classical Christmas through the Night
Dec 25
Classical Christmas until 9am
9am Hygge Holiday - Join host Elena See for an hour-long program of nostalgic favorites for the winter season. Programming includes favorites from Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Debussy and Blake. Encore from 2019
10am St. Olaf - (repeat)
12pm Sharing Traditions and Carols of Christmas - Repeat
1pm Tinsel Tales 3 - In keeping with a well-loved NPR holiday tradition, hear the third collection of extraordinary Christmas stories that will transport you to unexpected places.
Audie Cornish, Ken Harbaugh, Nina Totenberg and other voices from NPR's past and present tell stories of the season in this hour-long special. Some tales are funny; some are touching; some are insightful or irreverent or nostalgic or surprising. You might recognize them from our broadcast archives — or you might fall in love with them for the first time. Hosted by Lynn Neary
2pm World Café - World Cafe is celebrating 30 years by revisiting special holiday performances from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Los Lobos, Andrew Bird, The Bird and The Bee, Pink Martini, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and more. Hosted by Raina Douris, this musical gift will provide a full hour of hip holiday cheer.
3pm Festivo Alt Latino - NPR Music’s Alt.Latino presents a 2015 encore featuring songwriter/performer Gaby Moreno and her band performing tracks from her popular holiday album Posada - recorded live at the KUT studios in Austin, Texas. She was joined by special guests Gina Chavez and Chicano Zen bandleader and record producer Michael Ramos. Hosted by Felix Contreras
4pm Special Christmas presentation from SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Repeat
5pm David and Art Holiday Jazz - Repeat
6pm Thistle & Shamrock Special - Cerys Matthews is a Welsh musician and patron of the Dylan Thomas Society. In this program, originally broadcast in 2015, she narrates excerpts from the Dylan Thomas holiday classic, set to music that she created and recorded with her collaborator Mason Neely. One reviewer wrote: "Dylan’s words are so deliciously descriptive to begin with, and Matthews’ lilting Welsh accent, and deep understanding of the culture illuminates them further. Her love of Dylan’s poetry shines throughout, and serves to make it accessible to a wide audience." Hosted by Fiona Ritchie.
7pm I Hear America Singing - Airing regularly at 7pm on Saturday and Sunday at 9pm, this week host Ross Burns brings a sack full of holiday favorites.
8pm 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-cappela 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.
9pm Christmas w/ 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.
10pm. Joy to the World - 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, overflowing with enough holiday spirit to warm your entire family. Hosted by All Things Considered’s Ari Shapiro.
11pm World Café - Repeat