Thursday, November 24 at 6pm

Giving Thanks

Giving Thanks shares music and stories that reflect the meaning of gratitude.

This year Giving Thanks sounds the way Thanksgiving feels: inviting, warm, and festive. No clichés about pilgrims and pumpkin pies. Instead, it’s a contemporary, thoughtful celebration of spirit of the holiday. Special guest Ada Limon is the new Poet Laureate of the US (and host of APM’s The Slowdown). She joins our Thanksgiving table to read her poems and talk about how poetry amplifies gratitude. We’ll also revisit other US Poets Laureate who have been guests on Giving Thanks, including Billy Collins, Rita Dove, and Ted Kooser).

Whether you're up early in the kitchen, on the road to a family gathering, or relaxing after the feast, Giving Thanks provides the perfect atmosphere for Thanksgiving: the warmth of great music, and truly memorable words.

Thursday, December 1 at 6pm

Boston Brass Holiday Special

Lee Anne Myslewski and Rich Kleinfeldt host this hour of Baroque-flavored holiday music featuring the musicians of the Boston Brass. 

Friday, December 2 at 6pm

All Is Bright

Lynne Warfel hosts an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angels, the star and the manger scene. . Featured artists include Cambridge Singers, Cantus, and Chanticleer.

Sunday, December 4 at 1pm

Guadete! Early Music for the Christmas Season

Sara Schneider, producer and host of Early Music Now, presents Gaudete! Early Music for the Christmas Season, with joyful and contemplative sounds of the season. In this 1-hour holiday special, we’ll hear Byzantine chant by Kassiani, and selections from Missa Puer natus est nobis by Thomas Tallis, plus hymns and motets from Spain, Germany, and France. Our performers include The Cardinall’s Musick, Theatre of Voices, Cappella Romana, and Oltremontano.

Monday, December 5 at 6pm

Welcome Christmas

Welcome Christmas is a perennial Christmas favorite from VocalEssence, one of the world’s premiere choral groups, conducted by Philip Brunelle. An hour of traditional carols and new discoveries.

Tuesday, December 6 at 6pm

A 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.

Wednesday, December 7 at 6pm

Wind & Rhythm Classic Christmas

Wind & Rhythm celebrates the season with classic Christmas music. It’s the carols you love: old, new, and reimagined. We’ll listen to a wonderful arrangement of the Wexford carol, a medley of traditional carols rearranged to be in a minor key, a mash up of carols with Mozart, and more. 

Thursday, December 8 at 5pm
Watching for the Star | A Polish Christmas Eve

Father Czeslaw Krysa, Rector of the St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church and Sophie Hodorowicz Knab, author of the book, Polish Customs, Traditions & Folklore, are back to tell us about the music, events and celebrations in the Polish Community that surround the Holiday Season with a special emphasis on the most important of all Polish family traditions, Wigilia or Christmas Eve.

Friday, December 9 at 6pm

Music of the Baroque | Brass and Choral Holiday Concert

The WFMT Radio Network and Music of the Baroque wants to wish you and yours a joyous holiday season as we offer the Brass and Choral Holiday Concert for your listening pleasure. Hosted by celebrated WFMT host Candice Agree, tune in to the great works of composers like Samuel Scheidt, Giovanni Gabrieli, William Billings, Claudio Monteverdi, and many more.

Sunday, December 11 at 1pm

Handel’s Messiah | The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

We’re happy to air the remarkable performance from the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and conductor Adam Luebke recorded at Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna last year. Re-live this Holiday Tradition with us.

Monday, December 12 at 6pm

A Handel and Haydn Society Christmas

Celebrate the season with this hour-long special featuring Christmas choral music from America’s oldest continuously performing ensemble, Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society.

Tuesday, December 13 at 6pm

The Film Score: Music for the Winter Holidays

Film Critic Michael Phillips returns with The Film Score: Music for the Winter Holidays, an hour-long special devoted to holiday and wintertime movie music. In addition to beloved standards (“White Christmas” from “Holiday Inn” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from “Meet Me in St. Louis”), Michael shares an eclectic mix of wintry film scores, ranging from “It Happened in Sun Valley” (from “Sun Valley Serenade”) to Alexandre Desplat’s folk-inspired score for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” to Bernard Herrmann’s bracing sleigh ride accompaniment composed for the Orson Welles drama “The Magnificent Ambersons.” Bundle up and enjoy The Film Score: Music for the Winter Holidays!

Wednesday, December 14 at 6pm

Winter Holidays Around the World with Bill McLaughlin

Winter holidays are celebrated around the world, and their music is wonderful to hear, regardless of which tradition you observe. Bill’s spirited selection starts in the 12th century with Nova Stella, medieval Italian Christmas music from Saint Francis of Assisi’s staging of the nativity; jazz pianist Dave Brubeck’s classical composition La Fiesta de la Posada, evoking a Mexican Christmas celebration; and Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols. We will enjoy this time of year in Paris with music from Debussy, and then travel to Polynesia for a traditional hymn, Anau Oia Ea. And then ending with an excerpt from Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors from the original television production. Turn on your radio, pour a cup of tea, cozy up to a warm fire, and enjoy the music!

Thursday, December 15 at 6pm

Canadian Brass | Christmastime is Here

Hosted by WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon, this program features arrangements of music by Vince Guaraldi and Luther Henderson as well as traditional favorites from "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman" and more – timeless classics infused with jazz and lush harmonies. The selections on this program are featured on the quintet's latest album, "Christmas Time is Here."

Friday, December 16 at 6pm

Center Stage | Christmas with Calmus

Lee Anne Myslewski and Rich Kleinfeldt host this hour featuring a capella Christmas stylings by the ensemble Calmus.

Sunday, December 18 at 1pm
Watching for the Star | A Polish Christmas Eve

Father Czeslaw Krysa, Rector of the St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church and Sophie Hodorowicz Knab, author of the book, Polish Customs, Traditions & Folklore, are back to tell us about the music, events and celebrations in the Polish Community that surround the Holiday Season with a special emphasis on the most important of all Polish family traditions, Wigilia or Christmas Eve.

Wednesday, December 19 at 6pm

Candles Burning Brightly

A one-hour celebration of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights with an exploration of Chanukah foods and traditional activities … and plenty of music.

Tuesday, December 20 at 6pm

A Chanticleer Christmas

Celebrate the season with song! Brian Newhouse hosts this one-hour program of a cappella holiday favorites, new and old, presented live in concert by Chanticleer, the superb 12-man choral ensemble known as "an orchestra of voices." Chanticleer is one of the premiere vocal ensembles in the nation. The ensemble has won two Grammys and is a member of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Wednesday, December 22 at 6pm

A Mexican Baroque Christmas with the Rose Ensemble

This holiday program features over two centuries of festive Christmas dances and songs from the great cathedrals of Puebla and Mexico City.

Thursday, December 22 at 6pm

Bob Berkman’s Chanukah Special

WNED Alumnus Bob Berkman offers reflections, stories, and the music of Chanukah.

Friday, December 23 at 6pm

365 Holidays with the Canadian Brass

 The Canadian Brass play holiday favorites in new and classic arrangements. "365 Holidays" includes their exhilarating "Hanukah Medley", as well as "Joy to the World", "The First Noel", "Silent Night", a new arrangement of "Jingle Bells" in the style of Handel -- and many other tunes for the season

Saturday, December 24 at 10am

The Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols

Join us for this 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. This annual celebration will be broadcast live from the Proms in England. 

Sunday, December 25 at Midnight

Handel’s Messiah | The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

Playing this oratorio at Midnight on Christmas Morning has become a WNED Classical tradition. We’re happy to air the remarkable performance from the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and conductor Adam Luebke recorded at Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna last year. Re-live this Holiday Tradition with us.

Sunday, December 25 at 10am

The Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols

A rebroadcast of the Christmas Eve service. The audience will share in a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal ‘classical’ music (anthems a cappella and with organ accompaniment, and congregational hymns), presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue.

Tuesday, December 27 at 6pm

The Sounds of Kwanzaa with Garret McQueen

Garret presents the music, sounds and stories of Kwanzaa.

Wednesday, December 8 at 6pm

Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square

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.

Thursday, December 9 at 6pm

Interlochen Christmas

This episode features a variety of sacred and secular music for the Christmas season.

Friday, December 10 at 6pm

Handel’s Messiah  | The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

We’re happy to air last year’s remarkable performance from the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and conductor Adam Luebke recorded at Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna. Re-live this Holiday Tradition with us.

Sunday, January 1, 2022 at 11am

New Year's Day From Vienna 2023

The ever popular annual New Year’s Day Concert will be performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker. The 2023 Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert takes place on January 1, 2023, under the baton of Maestro Franz Welser-Möst in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. Franz Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive artistic partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic. After 2011 and 2013 the concert on January 1st marks the 3rd time, that Franz Welser-Möst conducts this prestigious concert event. -- a great way to start off 2023. Hosted by WBUR's Lisa Mullins.