WQED-FM 89.3 Holiday Programming
PITTSBURGH – Classical WQED-FM 89.3 airs an extensive schedule of favorite holiday music for Christmas, Chanukah and the New Year beginning in early December. WQED-FM 89.3’s holiday programming has become a community tradition as families and friends gather to share the season of peace and harmony.
Highlights of special holiday programming for December:
Carnegie Mellon Holiday Concert
Friday, December 5, Noon
Jim Cunningham hosts WQED-FM 89.3’s LIVE broadcast of the CMU Concert Choir, Repertory Chorus and Philharmonic. Robert Page conducts exquisite arrangements of Christmas Carols.
Heinz Chapel Choir Holiday Concert
Friday, December 5, 8 p.m.
The most intimate Christmas concert in Pittsburgh is always sold out, so host Ted Sohier brings the best seats in the house to radio as the Heinz Chapel Choir processes down the center aisle for a candlelit concert in the hushed atmosphere of Heinz Chapel.
Performance in Pittsburgh
Friday, December 12, 7 – 10 p.m.
A rebroadcast of the 2008 Carnegie Mellon Holiday concert, conducted by Robert Page.
Sunday Baroque
Sunday, December 14, 8-noon
Host Suzanne Bona offers cheery holiday music that gets the audience in the spirit, whether chilling out, puttering around the house cooking and cleaning, or heading out to fight the crowds at the mall.
Performance in Pittsburgh
Friday, December 19, 7 – 10 p.m.
A broadcast of the Duquesne University Advent Concert, recorded December 7th at St. Paul Cathedral.
Saturday Night Requests
Saturday, December 20, 8 – 10 p.m.
Jim Sweenie plays listeners favorite holiday requests.
Sunday Baroque
Sunday, December 21, 8-noon
A variety of seasonal selections, including highlights from George Frideric Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.
A Taste of Chanukah
Sunday, December 21, 7-8 p.m.
Theodore Bikel hosts a joyous Chanukah concert for the whole family, with traditional and contemporary storytelling and music from more than 150 musicians of the New England Conservatory and Boston Community Choir.
Handel’s Messiah
Sunday, December 21, 8-10 p.m.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Mendelssohn Choir is everybody’s Christmas favorite. Handel’s glorious oratorio Messiah, with favorite arias from Comfort Ye My People and Every Valley, to Rejoice Greatly … and favorite choruses from the Hallelujah Chorus to the Great Amen. Jim Cunningham hosts Pittsburgh Symphony Radio from Heinz Hall.
Pipedreams
Sunday, December 21, 10 – 11:30pm
Holiday music on the King of Instruments.
Ring, Christmas Bells
Sunday, December 21, 11:30 p.m. - midnight
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform Traditional Christmas Carols.
Exploring Music
December 22-26th, 10-11pm
Bill McGlaughlin explores Bach's Christmas Oratorio, performed in Leipzig's St. Thomas and St. Nicholas Churches in December 1734.
Music for the Festival of Lights
December 22 – 28, Every Evening
Each night of Chanukah, December 22 through the 28th, a piece of Jewish music of the season while candles are still glowing.
Nutcracker Suite
Tuesday, December 23, 8 – 10 p.m
Tchaikovsky’s entire holiday favorite performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Nine Lessons and Carols
Live from KingsCollege, Cambridge, England
Wednesday, December 24, 10 – noon.
The tradition began in 1918, the BBC began broadcasting in 1929, and they’ve been on the air ever since for millions worldwide. Join that one, clear, innocent voice opening Once in Royal David’s City, for the worldwide Christmas service of carols and spiritual texts.
Welcome Christmas
Wednesday, December 24, 6 - 7 p.m.
Begin the Christmas holiday with favorite carols old and new, from Vocal Essence, a regular favorite on A Prairie Home Companion.
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
Wednesday, December 24, 7 – 9 p.m.
One of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations, a service in song and word from more than 500 student musicians in hymns, carols, choral and orchestral works celebrating the Nativity.
T’was the Night Before Christmas
Wednesday, December 24, 9 – 10 p.m.
The retelling in drama and music the story of how this classic poem was written and seen from a child’s perspective. Bill McGlaughlin hosts.
A Christmas Memory
Wednesday, December 24, 11 – midnight
Truman Capote reads this traditional classic.
On Yoolis Night
Thursday, December 25, midnight
The voice of angels at the stroke of midnight, as Christmas Eve turns to Christmas Day. Anonymous 4 chant quiet songs, motets and carols invoking the Christmas story: the visitation of the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, gifts of the Magi and hymns of praise for the birth of Christ.
Choirs &Carols
Thursday, December 25, 6 – 7p.m.
Ancient harmonies from Trio Medieval, traditional carols from the Riga Dom Boys Choir, and a rarely heard Christmas song by Sibelius, straight from Finland's YL Choir. The Pittsburgh Brass unpacks a pair of 500-pound bells to ring in the holiday, and the members of Trio Voronezh tune up a balalaika or two.
PSOHoliday Pops
Thursday December 25, 7 – 8 p.m.
Led by Conductor Robert Bernhardt, the sounds of the season come alive from Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops.
Handel’s Messiah
Thursday, December 25, 8 – 10 p.m.
A repeat broadcast of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Handel’s oratorio.
Echoes of Christmas
Thursday, December 25, 11 p.m. – midnight
Spend the last moments of Christmas Day 2008 with one of the world’s great choirs, the Dale Warland Singers. A celebration of Christmas choral music new and hold, from more than 20 years of annual Dale Warland Christmas concerts.
Harmonia
Sunday, December 28, 7 – 8 a.m.
Celebrate the Holidays with a Baroque Christmas, including popular works and a few surprises.
Chanukah in Story and Song
Sunday, December 28, 7 – 8 p.m.
Leonard Nimoy and the Western Wind with a musical celebration spanning Ladino songs of Spanish Jews, Yiddish melodies from Europe, and modern Israeli tunes.
New Year’s Eve from First Night
Wednesday, December 31, 6pm to midnight
Celebrate the close of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 as WQED-FM 89.3 broadcasts from the Carolyn M. Byham studio in the Cultural District during First Night festivities.
New Year’s Day from Vienna
Thursday, January 1, 11 – 1 p.m.
New Year’s Day in the music capital of the world. The most popular classical concert on the planet, from the golden Musikverein in Vienna. Georges Prêtre conducts the 2008 Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Day concert of Strauss family waltzes, marches and polkas.
WQED Pittsburgh, honored with the 2007 and 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Award for Station Excellence, was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster. WQED creates, produces and distributes quality programs, products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within its community and around the world. WQED Pittsburgh is one of the first broadcasters in the country to be fully high-definition (HD) in its studio and field production capabilities. It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED-DT; WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED-HD; WQEX-TV (A ShopNBC affiliate); WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; a publishing division that includes PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org); and The WQED Education Department.
