Friday, November 4, at 3:00 pm
Host Mike Savage is joined by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Public Service Commission Chairman Robert Baker, and a representative from the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, to answer listeners' consumer questions. The number to call is 1-866-RADIO-GA (1-866-723-4642).
Friday, November 4, at 8:00 pm
Guest Nellie McKay
Twenty-year-old singer/pianist Nellie McKay has turned the music world on its ear since she released her 2004 debut album Get Away From Me. Born in London and raised in Harlem, her musical influences range from jazz to hip-hop and cabaret to rock and roll. McKay and McPartland match wits on "Body and Soul" and McKay plays her hit tune, "The Dog Song."
Saturday, November 5, at 1:30 pm
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Idomeneo
Idomeneo isn't one of Mozart's most frequently-played operas, but it is one of his finest -- filled with sharply-drawn characters, brilliant arias and ensembles, and stunningly beautiful choral music. And if that's not enough to keep you entertained, Mozart threw in a wild-eyed lunatic soprano and a man-eating sea serpent for good measure! Patrick Summers conducts this production by the Houston Grand Opera.
Susan Graham (Idamante); Laura Claycomb (Ilia); Richard Croft (Idomeneo); Alexandra Deshorties (Electra); Norman Reinhardt (Arbace); Arturo Chacón-Cruz (High Priest of Neptune)
Saturday, November 5, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, November 5, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, November 6, at 1:00 pm
From the Top ventures to the heartland and the charming Village at Winona in Indiana for a show that features two wonderful young Indiana musicians, a fun-loving saxophone/double bass duo, and an in-depth analysis of the 2004 presidential election results.
Friday, November 11, at 8:00 pm
Guest Joe Sample
Pianist Joe Sample has played an integral role in defining contemporary jazz piano. His background in hard bop eventually led to the funk/fusion electric keyboard style that defined the sound of his famous group, the Jazz Crusaders. Sample has since embraced a more lyrical and introspective style in trio and solo settings. He plays his tune "Spellbound" and then joins McPartland on Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'."
Saturday, November 12, at 1:30 pm
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Seventy years after its New York City premiere, Gershwin's great American opera comes to us live from the nation's capital. A stellar cast brings us all the hits, from "Summertime" straight through to "I'm On My Way," live from the stage of the Kennedy Center Opera House, on the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC. The Washington National Opera is conducted by Wayne Marshall.
Gordon Hawkins (Porgy); Indira Mahajan (Bess); Terry Cook (Crown); Angela Simpson (Serena); Laquita Mitchell (Clara); Marietta Simpson (Maria); Eric Greene (Jake); Jermaine Smith (Sportin' Life)
Saturday, November 12, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, November 12, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, November 13, at 1:00 pm
In this special edition of From the Top, host Christopher O'Riley catches up with some of the show's favorite musicians to see what they're doing these days. We'll hear violinist Nicole Ali from Mendota Heights, Minnesota, recorded when she visited the show at age 12; she's currently a freshman at Harvard and received a grant for her innovative stem cell research. Guitarist Rebecca Brown from Chicago was 9 when we met her; since then, Rebecca played a large supporting role in the hit feature film, "School of Rock." Clarinetist Jeffrey Brooks, from Ellensburg, Washington, is now married (to another clarinetist) and working as a free-lance clarinetist in Albuquerque; Jeffrey discusses how music can bring one through the best and most difficult of times. Pianist Stephen Beus, from Othello, Washington, is now at Juilliard and is attending the Van Cliburn competition this year, after spending two years on a mission for the Mormon church.
Friday, November 18, at 8:00 pm
Guest Irving Fields
Pianist Irving Fields gained fame as a lounge musician and cocktail pianist at New York's fine hotels and high society clubs in the '40s and '50s. An amazing pianist with an encyclopedic knowledge of tunes, Fields has also made historic contributions to jazz with his affinity for combining Latin rhythms with jazz, pop, and other world music traditions. At 89-years-young, Field's impeccable skills are on display as he plays his own "Miami Beach Rumba."
Saturday, November 19, at 1:30 pm
Mark Adamo: Lysistrata (world premiere)
In the words of Monty Python, this time Mark Adamo brings us "something completely different." Adamo is the composer of the operatic hit Little Women. In Lysistrata, he steps away from the charming fictional world of Louisa May Alcott and into the legendary world of ancient Greece. Here, the men of Athens and Sparta are constantly at war. That is, until the women of the two battling city-states threaten their warriors with the ultimate weapon -- abstinence! This Houston Grand Opera production is conducted by Stefan Lano.
Emily Pulley (Lysia); Heidi Stober (Tisiphone/Charito/Aphrodite); Laquita Mitchell (Myrrhine); Chad Shelton (Nico); Joshua Hopkins (Kinesias); Nicholas Phan (Maron/Ares); Norman Reinhardt (Meleagros); Fiona Murphy (Megaera/Arete); Jennifer Root (Sappho); Joshua Winograde (Leonidas); Victoria Livengood (Lampito); Arturo Chacón-Cruz (Alpheus)
Saturday, November 19, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, November 19, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, November 20, at 1:00 pm
This week From the Top comes from our home base, Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The show features a cello/violin duo of brothers performing a piece written by the 15-year-old cellist, and introduces From the Top's first two Cooke Young Artist winners, who receive $10,000 scholarships to further their musical education.
Thursday, November 24, at 11:00 am
Hosted by Mark Perzel, A Feast for the Ears presents a thoughtful mix of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. Perzel presents tuneful works from a number of notable Americans like Aaron Copland and Charles Ives, along with newcomers Mark O'Connor, Joseph Curiale, and Rick Sowash. He features popular songs of Americana, praise, and thanksgiving performed by well-known ensembles such as Anonymous Four and the Hilliard Ensemble. Perzel also includes Old World celebrations of thanksgiving, the harvest, and the hunt. Although music is the focus of this two-hour special, the host weaves the selections together with historical tidbits and seasonal tales. The program includes excerpts from an interview with Aaron Copland and presents composer Rick Sowash reading passages from the works of Willa Cather and sharing his thoughts about the Thanksgiving holiday.
(Pre-empts first two hours of Midday Music)
Thursday, November 24, at 1:00 pm
On a chilly November night last year, nearly 2,000 people gathered together in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis to share the spirit of Thanksgiving. The evening was called "Over the River and Through the Woods." Garrison Keillor hosted the program which blended American folk traditions, hymns, and choral masterpieces like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "Now Thank We All Our God" and Schubert's "Psalm 23." Garrison also shared his own Thanksgiving memories in a hilarious yet poignant monologue. The program features The Hopeful Gospel Quartet (jazz, blues, and gospel singer Mollie O'Brien; folk duo Robin and Linda Williams; and Garrison's own inimitable bass), as well as the 120 members of the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers conducted by Philip Brunelle.
(Pre-empts third hour of Midday Music)
Thursday, November 24, at 8:00 pm
As Thanksgiving brings family and food together to share common blessings, this program brings classical music and stories together in a thoughtful, contemporary reflection on the meaning of the holiday. Like a good Thanksgiving feast, Giving Thanks combines traditional fare with unexpected delights. A traditional offering is a rare recording of actor Charles Laughton. His spellbinding story connects his personal discovery of Chartres Cathedral with an excerpt from Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and the 104th Psalm. It is a moving and powerful tale, giving thanks for the discovery that Art connects us all to a greater creative spirit, offering a beautiful focus for the program and the day. Giving Thanks also invites the following guests to the table: Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States, who shares Thanksgiving memories and reads from his 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Delights and Shadows; and Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate, who recounts coming home from school for Thanksgiving and telling her parents she wanted to be a poet. She'll also read poems of gratitude from her collection On the Bus with Rosa Parks. The program also includes music by Handel, Beethoven, Copland, Tavener, Isham, and Metheny.
(Pre-empts Studio GPB Sessions)
Friday, November 25, at 3:00 pm, and Sunday, November 27, at 10:00 am
Rosalynn Carter discusses her roles as first lady of Georgia and first lady of the United States, and her three decades of work in the mental health arena. Joined by Jay Hakes, executive director of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, Mrs. Carter will also talk about the Museum's unique "First Ladies" exhibit, which opened on October 22 and continues through January 15, 2006. For more information on this exhibit, visit the Museum website at www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov.
Friday, November 25, at 8:00 pm
Guest Bruce Hornsby
Pianist and singer/songwriter Bruce Hornsby has traversed an eclectic mix of different musical styles from pop to roots music to soul. The Virginia native sees himself as balanced between various musical worlds, but on this Piano Jazz, Hornsby channels the influence of Keith Jarrett and Bud Powell, as he performs "Solaris" before doing his hit song, "That's Just The Way It Is."
Saturday, November 26, at 1:30 pm
Charles Gounod: Romeo and Juliet
As the story goes, the general manager of a major American opera company once heard that his production staff was planning to leave Romeo and Juliet alive at the end of Gounod's masterpiece. "Forget it," the GM said. "I want those kids dead!" And that was surely the right call. Gounod was among the few composers to ever make a successful opera based on a Shakespeare play and one of even fewer to make an operatic hit out of this one, perhaps the greatest dramatic tragedy of them all. And neither Shakespeare nor Gounod seems to have had a happy ending in mind. This Houston Grand Opera production is conducted by Emmanuel Joel.
Ana Maria Martinez (Juliet); Ramón Vargas (Romeo); Nikolay Didenko (Friar Lawrence); Judith Christin (Gertrude); Patricia Risley (Stephano); Arturo Chacón-Cruz (Tybalt); Brian Shircliffe (Paris); Joshua Winograde (Count Capulet); Daniel Belcher (Mercutio); Joshua Hopkins (Gregorio)
Saturday, November 26, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, November 26, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, November 27, at 1:00 pm
From the Top visited the Savannah Music Festival to record this show on March 26, 2005. We'll hear violinist Jack Stulz, age 16, from Ohio, playing a movement from Corigliano's Violin Sonata; pianist Connie Kim-Shen, 13, from California, performs "Toccata" from Episodes by Pancho Vladigerov; 18-year-old tenor Jermaine Jackson, from Lawrenceville, Georgia, sings "When I Have Sung My Songs" by Ernest Charles; the 15th Street Trio from Illinois plays part of Rebecca Clarke's Piano Trio; and alto saxophonist Kaelah Caldwell, 17, from Athens, Georgia, plays a movement from Paul Creston's Sonata, Op. 19.
Sunday, November 27, at 8:00 pm, and Sunday, December 4, at 10:00 am
Tune in for a special edition of Cover to Cover this month. Host St. John Flynn welcomes Atlanta author Patti Callahan Henry to the program to talk and answer questions about her recently-published second novel, Where the River Runs (NAL Books, 2005), the story of a woman who goes back home to the South Carolina Low Country to face the past - and discover herself. The program will not be broadcast live. Cover to Cover will be recorded with a live audience at the Columbus Public Library on Sunday, November 20, at 7:00 pm. You're invited to be part of the audience, and admission is free. Then listen on Sunday, November 27, at 8:00 pm for the statewide broadcast.
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Page updated 11/21/05