Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Christmas @ IPR Classical: Chanticleer, St. Olaf, Luther, Revels, Handel, Rose

Luther College

Our holiday offerings continue throughout Christmas Day with lovely specials from St. Olaf, the Rose Ensemble, Chanticleer, the Christmas Revels, Christmas at Luther, and a live performance of Handel's Messiah. Here's a complete list for Dec. 25th:

8am-9am: A Chanticleer Christmas - This unique vocal ensemble’s beloved offering, a favorite with audiences and critics alike. Its warmth and profundity are revealed in a telling of the Christmas story in Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, traditional carols, Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” (Chanticleer’s most requested Christmas selection) and Chanticleer’s traditional medley of spirituals.

9am-11am: St. Olaf Christmas Festival 2015 - From our neighbors just to the north, this latest St. Olaf festival features more than 500 student musicians who are members of five choirs and of the St. Olaf Orchestra. This year's participating choral ensembles include the St. Olaf Choir, the Viking Chorus and Chapel Choir, Cantorei, and Manitou Singers, conducted by Therees Hibbard. The St. Olaf Orchestra is conducted by Steven Amundson. Each group performs individually and as part of a mass ensemble.

11am- 12noon:   Christmas at Luther -  The 34th annual concert from Luther College in Decorah was so nice we're broadcasting it twice, in case you missed it yesterday! This year's concert features performances by six choirs, the Luther Ringers led by college organist Gregory Peterson, the Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Baldwin. and audience singing.

12noon- 2pm: The Christmas Revels 2015 - Set in a village not too different than the one described in Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales this year's Christmas Revels, recorded live in Cambridge, MA, takes a leap into the past to access the world of Celtic legend and song. We'll spin tales of shape-changers and dragons, of ghostly white horses and of the little wren — king of the birds, enjoy rich Welsh anthems, wild border Morris, a traditional mummers play, and lots of audience participation — a Revels hallmark

Credit Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
Dr. Betsy Burleigh, chair of choral conducting at Indiana University

2pm-4pm: Handel's Messiah.  Handel may not have meant this glorious oratorio for Christmas, exactly, but in America now is its season, and we say hallelujah! Especially when it's conducted by Betsy Burleigh, the chair the Department of Choral Conducting at one of America's leading conservatories, Indiana University, with one of the world's great orchestras, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Mendelssohn Choir.

2pm-4pm: A Rose in Winter: A Garden of Medieval and Renaissance Music for the Nativity - With its trademark vocal artistry, The Rose Ensemble presents a unique seasonal program. Amidst familiar stories of wise men and shepherds, ancient Christmas legends also describe a midnight blooming of all manner of plants, trees, and flowers. The acclaimed vocal ensemble’s holiday concert explores this miracle of new life amid the cold of winter through gorgeous music honoring the Madonna and Child. Features choral works by William Byrd and Jean Mouton, medieval English ballads, Spanish cantigas, and the beloved German carol, “Es ist ein Rose Entsprugen.”

Barney Sherman is a Senior Music Producer and Classical Music Host