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2016 Holiday Specials Program Guide

Celebrate the the season with Public Radio Tulsa and enjoy these special programs as you cozy up to the fire, wait in holiday shopping traffic or as you spend time with loved ones. 

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The Splendid Table's Homemade Holidays with America’s Test Kitchen
Thursday, December 15 | 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
AND Friday, December 16 | 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5

It's a team approach to holiday eating and entertaining this year when The Splendid Table joins forces with America's Test Kitchen to simplify entertaining and the holiday kitchen. Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop and other America's Test Kitchen personalities take it all on, whether you are cooking for two or twenty. Join us for foolproof ideas and recipes, gift guides for the eaters and cooks on your list and the perfect snack for Santa.

Jazz Night in America: Jazz at Lincoln Center Holiday Concert
Saturday, December 17 | 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5 (music)

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra offers swinging and soulful performances of your favorite holiday music, including brand new arrangements of songs both sacred and secular. Big Band Holidays will feature vocalists Denzal Sinclaire and Audrey Shakir, recorded in December 2015 at the Rose Theater in the heart of Manhattan.

Handel’s Messiah with Tulsa Oratorio Chorus
Sunday, December 18 | 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)            

From a 2013 performance at The University of Tulsa’s Lorton Performance Center, Maestro Tim Sharp leads the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and soloists, soprano Meray Boustani, and tenor Kim Childs in selections from Handel’s “Messiah”.

The Canadian Brass: Christmas Time is Here
Tuesday, December 20 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

“Christmas Time is Here” features the world renowned Canadian Brass in 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.

Tinsel Tales 1
Wednesday, December 21 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5                                           

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.

Featured stories include: Dad 'n' Sam (Jay Allison);?Homeless Christmas (Lee Stringer);?Christmas Morning, 1949 (Sylvia Seymour/Paul Auster);?Low-Glamour Christmas Party (Bailey White);?Doing it in the Closet (John McIlwraith);?Christopher (Jay O'Callahan);?Ode to Christmas (Chuck Kramer);?Santaland Diaries (David Sedaris);?Modern Day Joseph and Mary (Scott Simon); and?John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story (John Henry Faulk). We dare you to listen to John Henry Faulk’s story and not cry.

A Chanticleer Christmas
Wednesday, December 21 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

A one-hour program of holiday favorites, new and old, presented live in concert by the superb 12-man ensemble known as "an orchestra of voices."

Paul Winter’s Annual Winter Solstice Celebration
Wednesday, December 21 | 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Public Radio 89.5 (music)

Celebrate the Return of the Sun -- and the Warming of the heart with Paul Winter's Annual Winter Solstice Celebration. On the darkest night of the year, we head back to New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine to hear The Paul Winter Consort and the glorious Cathedral Pipe Organ. For more than 30 years, the performance has brought traditional holiday favorites and new sounds from around the world with special guests Ivan Lins and Renato Braz.

Tinsel Tales 2
Thursday, December 22 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5                       

NPR fills millions of homes each holiday with humor, warmth, and a host of festive voices. Continuing with the tradition of the first Tinsel Tales program, this is another collection of the best and most requested holiday stories. Joy, hope, and childhood memories overflow as NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season.

Stories include: Santa Claus, Private Eye (Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre of San Francisco);?Pass The Fois Gras: Christmas Menu Hard To Digest (Firoozeh Dumas);?A 'Silent Night' That Brought Healing (Steve Banko);?The Christmas Club (Bill Harley);?All I Wanted For Christmas (NPR staffers);?Christmas Gift Records (The Ban-Smo Label);?The Night Before Christmas, Latin Style (Read by NPR's Claudio Sanchez);?The Designated Celebrator (Melinda Shoaf);?Christmas Truce (Historian Douglas Brinkley); and?Wolf Christmas (Daniel Pinkwater).

Hanukkah Lights
Thursday, December 22 | 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5

Hosted by Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz, Hanukkah Lights is a perennial NPR favorite with all new stories detailing the Festival of Lights. This year featuring “The Infidelity of Judah Maccabee” by R.L. Maizes; “Week at a Glance” by Elisa Albert; “Erev Christmas” by Ellen Orleans, and “I” by Lia Pripstein.

Christmas with The King’s Singers
Thursday, December 22 | 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

It’s an a cappella Christmas from England with the King’s Singers, one of the world’s most celebrated vocal ensembles. This male sextet, consummate entertainers with a delightfully British wit, perform timeless carols, Christmas classics and new arrangements in their impeccable vocal blend with composers ranging from Orlando di Lassus to Sammy Cahn.

St Olaf Christmas Festival
Thursday, December 22 | 9:00 to 11:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

A service in song and word that has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. Tickets to the event - which takes place at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN - are always gone months in advance. The festival includes hymns, carols, choral works, as well as orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity and featuring more than 500 student musicians in five choirs and the St. Olaf Orchestra.

Tinsel Tales 3
Friday, December 23 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5

In keeping with a well-loved NPR holiday tradition, hear the third collection of extraordinary Christmas stories that will transport you to unexpected places. Voices from NPR's past and present tell stories of the season in this hour-long special. Some tales are funny; some are touching; some are insightful or irreverent or nostalgic or surprising. You might recognize them from our broadcast archives — or you might fall in love with them for the first time.

Stories include: December's Soundtrack (Amy Dickinson);?Christmas With UPS (Loree Gold);?Merry Stressmas: It's That Time Of The Year (Kevin Kling);?Appreciating The Ugliness Of The Christmas Tree (Ken Harbaugh);?Stealing Hemlock (Bailey White)?;Christmas Lights Tour (Bill Harley); Christmas With The Totenbergs (Nina Totenberg);?The Gift Of The Magi (O. Henry, read by NPR's Audie Cornish);?Christmas For Cows (Baxter Black);?Christmas Pudding (Marialisa Calta);?Caroling In The Cold (Julie Zickefoose);?Christmas Magic (Joseph C. Phillips);?and Grinch's True End (John Moe).

Christmas with Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Friday, December 23 | 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

The sounds of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 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.

Jonathan Winter’s Christmas Carol
Friday, December 23 | 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5

The late master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Charles Dickens' holiday classic, with a special performing edition prepared by Dickens himself for his own stage presentations. Also featuring actress Mimi Kennedy, “A Christmas Carol” is a public radio tradition hosted by NPR's Susan Stamberg.

Hidden Sixties Christmas Special          
Friday, December 23 | 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5 (music)

Wake the children, phone the neighbors, distribute the libations, and don't touch that dial.... KWGS co-conspirators John Wooley and Scott Gregory are back with another Hidden Sixties special! It'll be, as always, an ever-so-tasty trail mix of off-the-path pop, rock, jazz, soul, funk, blues, instrumentals, masterpieces, mishaps, and so forth -- holiday tunes you haven't heard since the 1960s, if you've ever heard them at all. Ugly sweaters welcome; shared listening encouraged.

AFestival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Saturday, December 24 | 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

Join the Choir of historic King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England, led by Stephen Cleobury, for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a live international broadcast to millions around the world. Hosted by Michael Barone, this live service of spoken-word and music has been hosted every year since 1918. The service includes carols and readings from the Bible. The opening carol is always 'Once in Royal David's City', and there is always a new, specially commissioned carol, this year from British composer Michael Berkeley, who has set to music a the traditional 15th century Christmas text This Endernight.

Swing On This Christmas Special           
Saturday, December 24 | 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Public Radio 89.5 (music)

Christmastime in New York
Saturday, December 24 | 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)            

The Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine performs at the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a program that spans hundreds of years and describes the story of the nativity. The program includes settings of the "O Magnum Mysterium" text by T. L. da Victoria, Morton Lauridsen, and Francis Poulenc; works by Byrd, Biebl, and Hassler; as well as music by Eric Whitacre, Francis Poulenc, William Byrd and Morten Lauridsen.

All This Jazz Christmas
Saturday, December 24 | 9:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.
Public Radio 89.5  (music)

"And all through the house...not a creature was stirring, but everything was swinging...." All This Jazz will offer wall-to-wall yuletide tunes on Christmas Eve, from 9pm to midnight. Join us for modern jazz with a hot-yet-cool holiday bent -- top-drawer music with a fun and festive vibe, jazz recordings both recent and classic, across a range of styles. The ideal music, dare we say, to wrap gifts to, look at lights with, sip nog by, etc.                                

New York Philharmonic – Messiah        
Sunday, December 25 | 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic present Georg Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and soloists Celena Shafer, Nancy Maultsby, Kurt Streit, and Jonathan Lemalu.

Tulsa Symphony Orchestra - Home for the Holidays
Sunday, December 25 | 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

Join us for the broadcast of Tulsa’s newest holiday tradition, uniting the Tulsa Symphony, the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and area high school choirs to bring families and community together in a celebratory holiday musical extravaganza. Conducted by Ron Spigelman, this uplifting showcase of nostalgic holiday favorites and sing-a-longs will be the joyous culmination of a memorable holiday season!

Capitol Steps New Year’s Special
Friday, December 30 | 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)

Washington’s premier parody song troupe offers up a year-end round up of the strange but true political year that was 2016. All your election favorites will be there:  President Elect Trump, Hillary, Bernie Sanders, Vladimir Putin…wait, what?!?

Don’t let the election divide us any further.  Tune in, and let’s unite in laughter!  And for goodness sake, can someone give Merrick Garland a hug?

All This Jazz New Year’s Eve Special
Saturday, December 31 | 9:00 p.m. – 12: 06 a.m.
Public Radio Tulsa 89.5 (music)

C'mon along as we ring in 2017 on All This Jazz! It'll be three solid hours of jazz music with a party-friendly, ring-them-bells, happy-new-year vibe...and in the tried and true manner of our radio show, it'll also be a stylistically broad range of jazz tunes: classic and recent, modern and post-modern, American and international, big band and small combo, vocal and instrumental, and so forth. Hope you can listen in!

New Year’s Day from Vienna 2017  (LIVE)      
Sunday, January 1 | 10: 00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Classical 88.7 (music)           

Each year, the Vienna Philharmonic welcome the New Year with a series of festive programs devoted to the music of 19th Century imperial Vienna and the waltzes, polka, and galops of the Strauss family. This year's New Year’s Day concert from Vienna promises to be epoch making, as the live program from the Vienna Musikverein will be conducted by LA Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel is the first Latin-born and the youngest conductor in the 75 year history of the tradition. The 2017 New Year’s concert will also feature the first appearance of the Vienna Singverein, the Musikverein’s 230 strong concert choir and works from five composers, in addition to the traditional Strauss family. You'll hear plenty of waltzes, polkas, and more -- a festive way to start off the New Year. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT PUBLIC RADIO TULSA!