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This year celebrate the ending of 2022 and the welcoming of 2023 with two live-streamed performances by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. 


Unsplash/Myriam Ziles

Celebrate the New Year with YourClassical MPR

The top Christmas songs of 2022, as voted by listeners.

Carol Countdown

Join hosts John Birge and Lynne Warfel as they count down the top Christmas songs, as voted by listeners, in the Carol Countdown, a two-hour special airing this week on YourClassical MPR and available now as on-demand audio.


Carol Countdown: Listen to the top Christmas songs, as voted by you

St Olaf Christmas Festival 2022

The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has become one of the nation's most cherished holiday celebrations. Listen now as the Northfield-based college presents its 2022 program, “Promise of Peace,” from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, with host Valerie Kahler, in this one-hour special.


Holiday

St. Olaf College

Listen: St. Olaf Christmas Festival presents 'Promise of Peace' for 2022

Randy Salas is the senior digital producer of classical music for Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media. He oversees all classical digital content, including the website, social media, videos, e-newsletters and podcasts.


Senior Digital Producer, Classical

Randy Salas

Over three days in mid-November, the Voces8 Scholars, the U.S.-based training ensemble for the U.K.’s esteemed Voces8, recorded two Christmas songs prepared exclusively for YourClassical MPR listeners as part of our Carol Countdown. Watch now!


Voces8 U.S. Scholars: Coventry Carol

Voces8 U.S. Scholars: Sussex Carol

Evan Clark/MPR

Watch: Voces8 Scholars sing Christmas classics 'Coventry Carol' and 'Sussex Carol'

A Soulful Christmas

Julie Amacher and Tesfa Wondemagegnehu host this uplifting Christmas special from 2021 that features Black music and composers. A 'Soulful Christmas' celebrates classical music by Black artists, while exploring spirituals, gospel music, jazz and other Black musical traditions.


Classical Feature - Holiday - A Soulful Christmas

YourClassical Storytime - 'The Snow Maiden'

There are many different versions of ‘The Snow Maiden,’ but this one reminds us to treasure winter as a special time of year instead of always wishing for warmer weather. Find out more in the latest episode of YourClassical Storytime, featuring storytelling by Valerie Kahler, music by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and illustrations by Nancy Carlson.


YourClassical Storytime: The Snow Maiden

YourClassical Storytime

Nancy Carlson for MPR

'The Snow Maiden'

Welcome Christmas

John Birge has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.


John Birge

"Welcome Christmas" is a perennial Christmas favorite from VocalEssence, one of the world's premier choral ensembles, conducted by Philip Brunelle and G. Phillip Shoultz. Join host John Birge for an hour of traditional carols and new discoveries, including compositions and arrangements by Zanaida Robles, Daniel Kantor, Sarah Quartel and more.


Classical Feature - Holiday - Welcome Christmas

Welcome Christmas!

Christmas at Luther

Longtime music host and performer Andrea Blain presents classical music programming including national specials, opera and other live broadcasts and holiday programs. She also is part of a team that works on content and scripting for ‘Rhapsody in Black’ and has voiced several episodes of YourClassical Storytime.


Andrea Blain

Each December, the Center for Faith and Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, rings out with the sacred and the exuberant: the sounds of the Christmas season.




Courtesy of Luther College

Christmas at Luther: Awake! and Greet the New Morn 

A Thanksgiving Meditation

Steve Seel is the host of YourClassical’s weekly SymphonyCast and the trailblazing music show Extra Eclectic. He possesses a broad knowledge of many musical genres, having hosted radio programs ranging from classical to jazz and even avant-garde music at radio stations around the country. Steve began his love affair with public radio at 24 working whatever shifts he could at his hometown station of WUSF-FM in Tampa, Florida, and from there worked his way to snowy Buffalo, New York, and its renowned classical station WNED-FM, where he hosted middays and the weekly experimental-music show Present Tense.  In 2005, Steve became one of the founding voices on Minnesota Public Radio's eclectic station, the Current. While there, he hosted afternoons and mornings, and conducted in-depth interviews with pop music luminaries ranging from Brian Eno to David Byrne to Tori Amos. Steve is a basement composer obsessed with all things both minimalist and slow, and might actually be incapable of writing anything that exceeds 75 beats-per-minute.


Steve Seel

This episode of ‘Extra Eclectic’ presents a cornucopia of works on themes of America, travel, autumn and the idea of home. Bill Morelock is the guest host. 


Extra Eclectic

Rawpixel | iStock | Getty Images Plus

YourClassical Storytime - Lurkey Is Lost! 

Thanksgiving is coming, but Lurkey the turkey is nowhere to be found. Can you help the farmer find the wayward bird? Grab paper and crayons and follow along as narrator Melanie Renate and artist Xee Reiter tell the story, with guitar music by Justin Holland, in the latest episode of YourClassical Storytime.


Holiday Stream Stories