WNYC's 2015 Holiday Specials
This year's holiday programming on WNYC is robust, featuring a wide range of specials celebrating Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the general spirit of December as the year comes to a close. Below, find a schedule of programming, and scroll down to learn more about each special. Keep checking back for more updates and audio.
Hanukkah Lights 2015
A perennial NPR favorite, Hanukkah Lights features Hanukkah stories and memoirs written by Kathryn Blume, Leah Lax, Eric Kimmel, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Jonathan Safran Foer as read by NPR's Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz. Listen online.
A conversation between Rabbi Ismar Schorsch and host Larry Josephson about the history, rituals and meaning of Hanukkah -- and its importance in our time. Cantors David Lefkowitz and Elisheva Dienstfrey sing the music of Hanukkah. Listen online.
This program features stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk -- these and other NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary. Listen online.
Live from Birdland, Jonathan Schwartz hosts his annual Christmas Show with John Pizzarelli, Jessica Molaskey, Kate McGarry, Mandy Patinkin, Bill Charlap, Karrin Allyson and many others.
The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR presents a beloved holiday tradition — a live performance of a radio drama inspired by the Charles Dickens classic. The story will be brought to life by your favorite WNYC and WQXR hosts and on-air talent, with Golden Globe-winning actor Kathleen Turner as Scrooge. Fred Newman of A Prairie Home Companion returns to provide his signature sound effects. Featuring music by composer/pianist John Forster and electro-acoustic violist/composer Martha Mooke. Directed by WQXR's Elliott Forrest. Watch the performance here.
A Paul Winter Solstice Concert
The Winter solstice is December 21 at 11:49pm. Celebrate the Return of the Sun -- and the Warming of the Earth with an exuberant Feast of Sound captured live in the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Divine. WNYC's John Schaefer hosts this all new performance, featuring the Paul Winter Consort with Paul McCandless, gospel singer Theresa Thomason, Danny Rivera -- the "National Voice of Puerto Rico”, and Abdel Salaam's Forces of Nature percussion and dance ensemble. Listen online.
Join Michael Feinstein for an hour of yuletide cheer and music. This edition of Song Travels journeys from Hollywood's vintage silver screen to New York City's iconic Birdland club. The Michael Feinstein Big Band performs selections from the classic movie White Christmas, and Feinstein shares rare recordings from some of his favorite performers. Listen online.
Wynton Marsalis hosts an hour of holiday jazz favorites by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter, René Marie, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. From WNYC and The Jonathan Channel. Listen online.
The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR presents the world premiere of The Soul Now Sings, a Christmas musical by award-winning recording artist and composer Damien Sneed, with libretto by author Karen Chilton. It tells a holiday story of hope and transformation with a cast of twenty singers and musicians performing Sneed’s original arrangements of gospel, jazz, and classical favorites like "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," "Call Him By His Name," "Jesus Oh What A Wonderful Child," and "Joy To The World,” as well as a powerful rendition of "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah. Listen online.
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. Listen online.
Alt.Latino continues its homegrown tradition of celebrating the holidays in song with a special show featuring songwriter/performer Gaby Moreno. Vocalist Moreno brings a Muscle Shoals-tinged holiday celebration to this year's Festivo Alt.Latino. Classics from the U.S. and Latin America get a shimmering bluesy, R&B treatment from Moreno and her four-piece band in a performance recorded live in front of a studio audience at KUTX in Austin, Texas. There is plenty of joy and holiday spirit in both English and Spanish that will add a new dimension to the idea of holiday music. Listen online.
A Season's Griot is public radio's only nationally syndicated Kwanzaa program. Hosted for nearly 20 years by acclaimed storyteller Madafo Lloyd Wilson, this annual one-hour special captures the tales and traditions of African American and African peoples. This year's program will celebrate The National Association of Black Storytellers with special guests Mother Mary Carter Smith, Linda Goss, Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, better known as Brother Blue, the show's poet laureate, Beverly Burnette, and other members of the Season's Griot family. Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also be in place with plenty of music in this, the 2015 edition of A Season's Griot. Listen online.
The winter holiday tradition continues as the Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in "Best of the Best", hosted by award-winning writer, producer and humorist Gwen Macsai. This year, Radiolab’s “Sight Unseen” piece won the Gold Award for Best Documentary. Listen online.
New Sounds: Best-Of 2015
In a not-so-shocking break with tradition, WNYC's John Schaefer reveals his “Best Of 2015” list, before 2015 actually ends. Tune in and you’ll probably hear kora and cello music recorded on a rooftop in Bamako, Mali; the 1960s space race set to 21st century electronics; and folk songs from the shadowy “Traveller” culture of Scotland and England. Listen online.The Season: Special
The WNYC newsroom created The Season over the course of this fall, a weekly podcast that followed Columbia University’s football team, The Lions, over their ten-game season, as they tried to recover from a two-year losing streak. The Season looks at the mental and physical tolls of football and the intense hold it maintains over players, coaches, and fans alike. This special takes the best parts of each episode and creates an abridged, one-hour narrative. Listen online.BBC Correspondents Look-Ahead
Owen Bennett-Jones and leading BBC correspondents discuss and give their predictions about what will shape the world in the year ahead. Owen is joined by BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet who has spent the year reporting from across the globe. North America Editor Jon Sopel looks ahead to next year's US Presidential election and discusses who he thinks will win the race for the White House. Joining them are the BBC's most experienced diplomatic correspondents, James Robbins and Bridget Kendall. Last year she predicted that 2015 would be a year of shocking terrorist activities in Europe and a big year for the Pope. What will she and the other correspondents predict for 2016? Listen online.