Friday, December 1, at 3:00 pm
On the first Friday of the month at 3:00 pm, Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio offers the Consumer Call-in program, a live, one hour call-in where experts take calls and answer questions about consumer issues. The program, hosted by Rickey Bevington, includes experts such as Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Public Service Commissioner Bobby Baker, and representatives from the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. The program covers a wide variety of consumer topics from how to protect your identity to dealing with unfair business practices. You can e-mail your questions and comments to consumer@gpb.org. The number to call is 1-866-RADIO-GA (1-866-723-4642).
Friday, December 1, at 8:00 pm
Guest Melissa Walker
Vocalist Melissa Walker is a fascinating new voice on the jazz scene with impeccable phrasing, a soulful swing, and a warm sensuous tone. A former law student, Walker traded her legal briefs for the American Popular Songbook, and began pursuing a fulltime career in jazz. She and McPartland spend a delightful hour talking about the jazz life and performing together on "The More I See You," "It Could Happen to You," and Walker's own tune, "Love Is."
Saturday, December 2, at 1:30 pm
Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo
One of the world's great orchestras turns to opera, in this bang-up performance of Verdi's sprawling - and more than a little perplexing - drama of jealousy and redemption. Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra and a standout cast, including Samuel Ramey as Philip II.
Miriam Gaucci (Elisabeth); Marcus Haddock (Don Carlo); Samuel Ramey (King Philip II); Eric Owens (Grand Inquisitor); Yvonne Naef (Eboli); Simon Keenlyside (Marquis of Posa)
Saturday, December 2, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 2, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 3, at 12:00 noon
Guests: Imani Winds
Imani Winds makes a warmly-anticipated return visit to Saint Paul Sunday this week for music that both gives its signature exuberance free rein and lets us in on the depth and range of this remarkable quintet. Two of the program's works, Jeff Scott's "Titilayo" and Valerie Coleman's reimagination of the spiritual "Steal Away," were composed from within the ensemble. Pavel Haas' stylistically prescient tenth wind quintet reveals these performers' capacity to illuminate the rarer gems of their repertoire. And Uruguayan composer Miguel del Aguila's second wind quintet, which closes the hour, seems to embrace all that comes before.
Sunday, December 3, at 1:00 pm
The best way to keep classical music fresh and new is to cultivate new composers. And that’s just what listeners will hear this week as 16-year-old Natasha Sinha from Milton, Massachusetts, who is one of the honorees in From the Top’s Young Composer Project, presents her duet for cello and piano. Of course there will also be terrific performances of more standard repertoire by young musicians from up and down the East Coast, including pianist Ha Eun Lee, 18; violinist Elicia Silverstein, 16; tenor Geoffey Penar, 17; and the members of the Loki Quintet, all 17 years old.
Friday, December 8, at 3:00 pm, and Sunday, December 10, at 10:00 am
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. Today, human rights champions worldwide work at great risk to hold their governments accountable to this standard. The Carter Center's Human Rights Senior Advisor Karin Ryan leads a conversation on how the international community can help support these leaders who are on the front lines of the struggle for freedom.
Friday, December 8, at 8:00 pm
Guest Dr. Clare Hansson
Queensland's First Lady of Jazz, pianist Clare Hansson is one of Australia's best-loved entertainers and a well-known part of Brisbane's jazz scene since the '70s. She's recently completed her PhD. in Jazz Studies, the first at her university to do so. In this program from 2000, Hansson teams up with McPartland for "A Foggy Day in London Town," and performs a musical portrait of Marian.
Saturday, December 9, at 1:00 pm - note early start
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 throws in a wild-eyed, lunatic soprano and a man-eating sea serpent for good measure! James Levine conducts.
Dorothea Röschmann (Ilia); Alexandra Deshorties (Elettra); Magdalena Kozená (Idamante); Kobie van Rensburg (Idomeneo)
Saturday, December 9, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 9, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 10, at 6:00 am
Evocative music of the season is performed by the Celtic/chamber group Ensemble Galilei, interspersed with poignant poems of the season read by NPR's Neal Conan. Audiences have been swept away by this extraordinary combination of the spoken word and what critics have described as "music that speaks to the heart in ways that transcend mere language." Ensemble Galilei performs Irish, Scottish, early, and original music on a variety of ancient and modern instruments, including the Celtic harp, Scottish small pipes, gamba fiddle, recorders, whistles, and percussion. The music is combined with texts from Ogden Nash, Li Young Lee, Mary Oliver, and Jim Harrison.
Sunday, December 10, at 12:00 noon
Guests: Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Karl Paulnack, piano
Now and then, music of our time needs its own champions, too - performers devoted to sharing it with listeners who haven't yet experienced just how it exhilarating can be. This week, violinist Jorja Fleezanis and pianist Karl Paulnack join forces to celebrate the music that originally brought them together. These missionaries of contemporary sound have made it their calling to engage and enlighten audiences with rarely performed 20th and 21st century works. Listen in for sonatas by Peter Mennin and Ernst Bloch as well as one of Alban Berg's hauntingly beautiful Seven Early Songs.
Sunday, December 10, at 1:00 pm
From the Top is in Tallahassee at Florida State University, to be part of the Seven Days of Opening Nights Festival. Audiences will hear outstanding musicians from 15 to 18 years old, including young guitarist Ariadne Smith from San Jose, California performing "A Dream in the Forest" by Barrios, and teenage trombonist Ross Holcombe from Tallahassee performing a monster of a piece by Ferdinand David. That trombonist will help 13-year-old Roving Reporter Caeli Smith teach a fabulous teenage pianist how to ride a bike! We'll hear performances by pianist Sejoon Park, tenor Jake Armstrong, and violinist Miran Kim.
Friday, December 15, at 8:00 pm
Guest Jeremy Siskind
Piano Jazz showcases another bright young pianist, Jeremy Siskind. A rising junior at the Eastman School of Music, Siskind has already won several impressive competitions and attracted the attention of Piano Jazz's host. His skills have taken him to Japan and around the U.S. He's in the studio with McPartland for piano duets of "Autumn Leaves" and "There'll Never Be Another You."
Saturday, December 16, at 1:30 pm
Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto
The melancholy hunchback Rigoletto is court jester for the debonair but ruthless Duke of Mantua. When Rigoletto mocks a courtier whose wife was seduced by the Duke, the man places a bitter curse on him, a curse which comes to pass when the Duke discovers and pursues the only light in Rigoletto's life, his beautiful and sheltered daughter Gilda. Friedrich Haider conducts.
Ekaterina Siurina (Gilda); Nancy Fabiola Herrera (Maddalena); Joseph Calleja (Duke of Mantua); Carlos Alvarez (Rigoletto); Robert Lloyd (Sparafucile)
Saturday, December 16, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 16, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 17, at 6:00 am
People today usually think of carols as songs performed by choirs during the Christmas season. But originally, carols were festive dance songs for a variety of holidays and seasons. Lauda, villancicos, noels and carols, all medieval dance song forms, became linked with innovative celebrations of Christmas and then flowered during the Renaissance. So at Christmas, these cheerful songs accompanied joyful dancing at home and in the streets, in churches and cathedrals. Carols for Dancing explores the intimate connection between song and dance in this rich heritage of holiday music. Built around vigorous performances by Renaissonics - an award-winning improvisatory Renaissance dance band that produced new arrangements for this special - the program tells the story of the mid-winter holiday dance tradition with brief, intriguing narratives by host Ellen Kushner, creator and host of PRI's Sound & Spirit.It showcases instrumental music, revealing the fascinating and often unexpected stories behind familiar carols and offering listeners the chance to learn while enjoying an upbeat music presentation.
Sunday, December 17, at 12:00 noon
Guests: David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano
The Wall Street Journal calls them "America's power couple of chamber music," but their fans just call them "wonderful." Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han make a warmly anticipated return visit to Saint Paul Sunday this week for a program that fully engages the duo's enthralling way of revealing the music from the inside out. Along with Brahms's first cello sonata and one of his beloved intermezzi for solo piano, we also hear heartfelt music of Edvard Grieg. The program opens with "Portrait," a deft and lyrical work composed by David's own father, Edwin Finckel.
Sunday, December 17, at 1:00 pm
From The Top visits East Texas this week, with a show featuring five terrific young soloists, including two Texans. The performers are pianist Tyler McCuen, violinist Laura Liu, flutist Ridge Davis, guitarist Matar Batyonathan, and cellist Mindy Park.
Monday, December 18, at 8:00 pm
This special program illuminates the connection between ancient heroes and modern-day superheroes. Host Arye Gross begins with the Chanukah story of the Maccabees, the Hebrew band of brothers who fought against the religious repression of the Syrian-Greeks over 2000 years ago. This heroic tale has long inspired comic book writers. Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and DC Comics' Wil Eisner describe their humble origins and the backdrop of their Jewish experience, which informed Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman. We'll also hear from filmmakers Sam Raimi and Brian Singer, author Michael Chabon, and graphic novelists Art Spiegelman and the Hanouka brothers. Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes includes archival radio and movie clips, music, and readings, all woven around the compelling tale of how the holiday evolved from a story of military victory to one of light and inspiration.
Wednesday, December 20, at 8:00 pm
A Christmas celebration of music and poetry for all ages to enjoy! Classical carols and classic poetry combine to tell the story of Christmas, just like the pageants of days gone by. Follow the Three Wise Men as they set out for Bethlehem; meet Saint Nicholas (no, not Santa Claus!); experience the traditions of Christmas around the world. It's a magical Christmas Eve, the celebration of Christmas Day and rejoicing of animals at the manger. Everyone will enjoy the stories of why the stork delivers babies, how the robin got its red breast, and how tinsel came to decorate our trees. A Classical Kids Christmas brings back the spiritual and musical beauty of Christmas performed by exquisite children's choirs, soloists and instrumentalists. Featuring more than 30 classic carols plus classic poetry of the season, including "T'was the Night Before Christmas," the "Huron Carol," Longfellow's "Christmas Carol," and Hardy's "The Oxen."
Friday, December 22, at 8:00 pm
Marian McPartland celebrates the holidays with a special hour of her favorite Christmas music and memories. Marian and several of her Piano Jazz guests perform traditional Christmas songs as well as more modern works that celebrate the season. Listeners are in for a special gift when McPartland shares classic Christmastide tales by Dylan Thomas and O. Henry set to an improvised musical score by the jazz legend herself.
Saturday, December 23, at 1:00 pm - note early start
Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo
Once described as "the thinking man's grand opera," Don Carlo is Verdi's longest and most complex work, dealing with two of his favorite themes: the way in which individual destinies can affect those of millions, and the relationship between Church and State. James Levine is the conductor.
Patricia Racette (Elisabeth de Valois); Olga Borodina (Eboli); Johan Botha (Don Carlo); Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Rodrigo); René Pape (King Philip); Samuel Ramey (Grand Inquisitor)
Saturday, December 23, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 23, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 24, at 6:00 am
The best of holiday music-making from coast-to-coast. NPR takes you from churches to concert halls to auditoriums to town halls all across the nation in search of performances that express the best of the holiday season. Fred Child hosts.
Sunday, December 24, at 10:00 am
The sound of one pure solitary child's voice rings out each Christmas Eve at the Chapel of King's College in Cambridge, England. It heralds the beginning of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the continuation of 88 years of heartfelt tradition. The service was first held on Christmas Eve in 1918, and first broadcast in 1928. With the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast every year since, even during the Second World War. Soon the service began to be adapted by other churches and heard all over the world, and it has become an essential part of Christmas Eve preparations for millions of listeners. Join host Michael Barone on Christmas Eve morning for this special live broadcast.
Sunday, December 24, at 11:30 am
From WBUR/Boston and National Public Radio, A Car Talk Christmas Carol stars Tom and Ray Magliozzi and a stellar cast of public radio personalities. It parodies the classic story’s themes of generosity and redemption, with a script by brilliant and beloved children’s author and NPR commentator Daniel Pinkwater, who also narrates. The cast features Tom and Ray Magliozzi as The Scroogiozzi Brothers, Robert Siegel as Bob Cratchit, Ira Glass as Tiny Ira, Susan Stamberg as The Spirit of Public Radio Past, Scott Simon as The Spirit of Public Radio Present, Andrei Codrescu as The Spirit of Public Radio Future, and Carl Kasell as Crusty the Mechanic, with appearances by Bailey White, Fred Child, Daniel Schorr, Terry Gross, and A Prairie Home Companion’s Tim Russell.
Sunday, December 24, at 12:00 noon
Guests: The Empire Brass
Brass music lends the holidays a special grandeur, and this week the celebrated Empire Brass visits Saint Paul Sunday to help ring in the season. Along with traditional tunes and carols, the quintet will play glorious antiphonal and classical works that evoke the spirit of the time. We'll hear music of Russian composers, including two of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Dances, as well as works by Susato, Purcell, Holborne and Albinoni.
Sunday, December 24, at 1:00 pm
From the Top is at home this week, with a show featuring outstanding musicians from 13 to 18 years old, including young mezzo-soprano Wendy Wang singing Scarlatti, and teenage violinist Audrey Wright from Cape Cod performing evocative music about the gods by Karol Szymanowski. Also on today’s show, audiences will listen in on a private master class given to young composer Tudor Dominic Maican by one of America’s leading adult composers, Libby Larsen. We'll also hear performances by 13-year-old pianist Peng-Peng Gong, and the member of the Biarritz Trio, aged 16 and 18.
Sunday, December 24, at 6:00 pm
A Boston classic returns to NPR. Hear the world's most famous orchestra performing music for the holidays under the leadership of charismatic conductor Keith Lockhart, from Symphony Hall in Boston. One of NPR's most popular holiday specials.
(Pre-empts Latino USA, Agenda Hispana, and The Infinite Mind)
Sunday, December 24, at 8:oopm
A public radio tradition updated this year with NPR host Lisa Simeone. 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.
(Pre-empts The Spoken Word)
Monday, December 25, at 11:00 am
Recorded live at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, WHYY and NPR present Handel's holiday masterpiece performed by the "Fabulous Philadelphians," one of the world's great orchestras, joined by the nationally-renowned Philadelphia Singers Chorale in the immediacy and vitality of a live broadcast. Acclaimed British choral master Richard Hickox conducts. Hosted by Fred Child and Melinda Whiting.
(Pre-empts Midday Music)
Monday, December 25, at 8:00 pm
From member station WACG in Augusta, The Augusta Opera at St. Paul’s returns to GPB this month. Now in its 23rd season in the spectacular acoustics of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, this moving and powerful concert of Christmas music has become an established Augusta holiday tradition. Maestro Mark Flint conducts the Augusta Opera Chorus and Orchestra, and the Augusta Children's Chorale.
(Pre-empts Studio GPB)
Wednesday, December 27, at 8:00 pm
Good stories bring people together, and host Madafo Lloyd Wilson has great stories to share! A Season's Griot 2006 focuses on the many wonderful ways a story can be told. Wilson highlights the work of the Kings and Queens of Storytelling, a collective whose members artfully demonstrate their storytelling craft. The collective's founder, Mitch Capel, affectionately known as Gran'daddy Junebug, tells his stories in rhyme. Queen Nur shares stories in forms found throughout the African Diaspora. Wilson shares a work of his own in multiple voices, presenting it as a cross between storytelling and a radio play. Opening with a poem by Beverly Fields Burnette, the program features original music throughout. Join Wilson and his guests in this engaging hour of story and song in celebration of Kwanzaa.
(Pre-empts first hour of Studio GPB)
Wednesday, December 27, at 9:00 pm
The Capitol Steps invite you to toast the New Year by remembering the old one in their hour-long special, Politics Takes a Holiday. It’s goodbye to Donald Rumsfeld, hello to Speaker Pelosi! And it’s our annual awards ceremony to all those who provided us with material throughout the year. (New categories: Best Hunting Accident; Sexiest Text Message; and Most Creative Use of Rehab as an Excuse!) Join Nancy Pelosi, Mel Gibson, John Bolton, the Pope, a few singing stem cells, and many more as the Capitol Steps bring you the year in review.
(Pre-empts second hour of Studio GPB)
Friday, December 29, at 8:00 pm
Guest Matthew Shipp
Pianist/composer Matthew Shipp has an intricate and heady approach to his music. An ardent musical explorer and promiscuous collaborator, Shipp has experimented with avant-garde and free jazz styles, tape loops, programmed beats, and even turntable artists. On this Piano Jazz, Shipp settles into one of his favorite environs, the duo format, as he and McPartland explore the outer reaches on "Naima" and Shipp's own "Gamma Ray."
Saturday, December 30, at 1:30 pm
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute
Mozart's penultimate opera is a fairy-tale work overlaid with Masonic and humanist symbolism, the tale of a prince and his bird-catcher sidekick who go on a quest to rescue a captive princess. This abbreviated version in one act features an English-language libretto by J.D. McClatchy. James Levine is the conductor.
Ying Huang (Pamina); Erika Miklósa (Queen of the Night); Matthew Polenzani (Tamino); Nathan Gunn (Papageno); René Pape (Sarastro); Jennifer Aylmer (Papagena)
Saturday, December 30, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 30, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 31, at 6:00 am
The Christmas Revels: A Celebration of the Winter Solstice 2006 is a delightful compilation of country dance tunes, carols, songs, and motets excerpted from nine unique Revels celebrations performed last winter across the country. Host Elaine Kennedy guides listeners through the program's sacred and secular folk materials and composed works, all of which are rooted in traditional European and American observances of Christmas, New Year's, the Feast of Fools, Twelfth Night, and the Winter Solstice, and some of which date back to pre-Christian times. This multicultural Winter Solstice sampler features French-Canadian, Scandinavian, Scottish, Eastern European, and English works from the Middle Ages through the 20th century.
Sunday, December 31, at 12:00 noon
A Dale Warland Singers Retrospective
Based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Dale Warland Singers was recognized as one of the world's foremost a cappella choral ensembles. The 40-voice professional choir recently concluded its 31st and final season of concerts, tours, radio broadcasts, and critically acclaimed recordings. Besides its pristine and peerless signature sound, the Dale Warland Singers is also renowned for rejuvenating the choral genre. It has commissioned and performed an astounding 270 works in 31 years - more new choral music, in fact, than any other classical music organization in the country. On today's retrospective program, we'll hear the group perform music old and new, by composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, James Walker, Eric Whitacre, Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Veljo Tormis.
Sunday, December 31, at 1:00 pm
This week’s From the Top comes from the brand-new Dale F. Halton Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina, and features the 58-member Charlotte Children’s Choir, along with the first trumpet player in the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra, Ben Fuller, age 17. We'll also hear performances by 15-year-old cellist Alan Toda-Ambaras, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina; tuba player Zachary Graff, 17, from Austin, Texas; and pianist Yin-Yin Ou, 16, from New Stanton, Pennsylvania.
Sunday, December 31, at 8:00 pm
This month's broadcast is an encore presentation of the April 2006 Cover to Cover, when host St. John Flynn welcomed to the studio North Georgia College professor Brian Jay Corrigan to talk and take listener calls about his novel The Poet of Loch Ness (Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), a lyrical tale of lost love and renewed desire. Perdita Miggs is thrilled when her bland marine-biologist husband gets a grant to spend the summer studying Loch Ness. Scotland is also the place where, seventeen years earlier, she fell in love with Highland poet Andrew Macgruer. Among the unexpected guests at the bed-and-breakfast where Perdita is staying is Andrew, whose allure has only improved with age.
Sunday, December 31, at 10:00 pm
Join Garrison Keillor as he celebrates New Year’s Eve at the Ryman Auditorium, joined by the regular performers from A Prairie Home Companion, as well as many other musical guests, to be announced.
Monday, January 1, at 1:00 am
Our annual tradition of live jazz on New Year's Eve, Toast of the Nation rings in 2007 with great performances from coast to coast. Tune in for New Year's revelry and four midnights. Live headliners include Kendrick Oliver & The New Life Orchestra in Boston, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra in New York, Karrin Allyson in Kansas City, and the McCoy Tyner Trio with special guest Joe Lovano from Oakland, California. Hosted by Rhonda Hamilton.
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Page updated 1/3/07