WCPE TheClassicalStation

Home
United States
Wake Forest, NC
WCPE TheClassicalStation

The Classical Station is listener-supported Great Classical Music 24 hours a day! Online on our app, Listener-supported Great Classical Music 24 hours a day!

Online at TheClassicalStation.org, via streaming app, and on 89.7 fm in Central North Carolina. WEEKDAY PROGRAMS

12AM - 5:30AM Sleeper's Awake
5:30AM - 10AM Rise N Shine
10AM - 1PM Classical Cafe
1PM - 4PM As You Like It!
4PM - 7PM Allegro
10PM - 12AM Music In The Night

*Every Monday through Wednesday
7PM - 8PM Concert Hall

*Every Monday
Monday Night at the Symphony
8PM - 10PM

*Every Thursday Night Opera House
7PM - 10PM

*Every Friday All Request Program
9AM - 10PM

SATURDAY PROGRAMS

12AM - 6AM Sleeper's Awake
6AM - 6PM Weekend Classics
6PM - 10PM Saturday Evening Request Program

SUNDAY PROGRAMS

12AM - 6AM Sleeper's Awake
6AM - 7:30AM Weekend Classics
7:30 AM - 8AM Sing For Joy
8AM - 12PM Great Sacred Music
12PM - 6PM Weekend Classics
6PM - 9PM Preview!
9PM - 10PM Wavelengths
10PM - 12AM Peaceful Reflections

01/17/2025

Happy All-Request Friday, Listeners!
And we’ll play your favorites and dedications again tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program (6pm-12am ET).

HEADS-UP: Ticket Giveaway
Tune into Classical Café with George Leef on Wednesday (January 22nd, between 11am-12pm ET) for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the North Carolina Symphony performance of Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as works by Caroline Shaw and Henri Dutilleux.

On today’s date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of New Zealand-British organist Dame Gillian Weir in Martinborough in 1941. Weir was 19 when she was co-winner of the Auckland Star Piano Competition, and then won a scholarship of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in London a year later. In 1964, Weir won the St. Albans International Organ Competition, then made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall on the opening night of the 1965 Promenade Concerts as the youngest organist to perform there. Read more about her here: t.ly/dRzs6

01/17/2025

The theme for this week’s Classical Conundrum is: Hobnobbing with Royalty

This composer was born in Italy but served as court composer to Catherine the Great of Russia.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/16/2025

On this day in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar (born Lorenza Pilar Garcia Seta) in 1928 in Zaragoza. As a child, Lorengar was on Radio Zaragoza’s program Ondas Infantiles (Children’s Waves). She began formal music lessons as a teenager, then moved to Barcelona to study at the Barcelona Music Conservatory; she paid for her studies by performing under the name Loren Arce. Lorengar continued her studies in Madrid and then West Berlin, and became a chorus member at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in 1949; her professional debut was in 1950 in Oran, Algeria, and she was a performing soloist in Barcelona by 1952. Read more about her here: t.ly/dRzs6

01/16/2025

Happy Friday Eve, All!

This evening’s Thursday Night Opera House features the 1980 recording of Michel Plasson conducting L’Orchestre et Choeurs du Capitole de Toulouse plus amazing soloists in Charles Gounod’s Mireille, based on the 1861 poem Mirèio by Frédéric Mistral. Young Mireille (Mirella Freni) falls in love with Vincent (Alain Vanzo), a basket-weaver from a lower class. Her family and others disapprove. Meanwhile, the bull-tamer Ourrias (José van Dam) attempts to woo her, but Mireille follows her heart (to a tragic end).
Join us at 7pm ET for this 2006 archival broadcast with late TNOH host Al Ruocchio.

01/16/2025

The theme for this week’s Classical Conundrum is: Hobnobbing with Royalty

This composer performed for and taught the flute to King Frederick the Great.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/15/2025

Hello, Listeners! Thank you for spending your week with The Classical Station.

On this date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of Austrian composer Johanna Müller-Herrmann in 1878 in Vienna. She had music lessons as part of her childhood, but was not allowed to focus on music as a career; when she married in 1893, she was and she turned her attention to piano and violin lessons and studying music theory (Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schmidt were among her teachers). Read more about her here: t.ly/dRzs6

01/15/2025

The theme for this week’s Classical Conundrum is: Hobnobbing with Royalty

This composer served as Master of the King’s Music to King George II of England.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/14/2025

Get your requests and dedications in for this week’s All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program. We are always looking forward to hearing your favorite music and extending your dedications to those you care about. t.ly/MeEIb

Support classical music AND public radio at the same time when you donate to The Classical Station. t.ly/VQuEp

Are you a business owner? Become one of our Business Sponsors and reach an audience of hundreds of thousands of listeners in North Carolina and around the world. t.ly/0SG4P

On this date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, who was born in Riga in 1943. Jansons’ mother Iraida was a lead singer with the Riga Opera and his father Arvīds was the conductor of the opera orchestra and a violinist. The family was Jewish and Jansons was born in hiding. He took his first music lessons with his father, who was called to Leningrad to be assistant conductor to the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1956; Jansons joined his father and studied conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory. Read more about him here: t.ly/dRzs6

01/14/2025

The theme for this week’s Classical Conundrum is: Hobnobbing with Royalty

This composer received a lot of financial support from the Mad King of Bavaria.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/13/2025

A very good new week to all of you. Thank you so much for listening to The Classical Station.

This week’s Monday Night at the Symphony features recordings from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and music by Richard Strauss, Cesar Cui, Federico Busoni, and others, conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn, Samuel Wong, and Antonio de Almeida. Join us at the symphony at 8pm ET.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 14), tune into Classical Café with George Leef for his weekly Legendary Performer feature; this week, it’s pianist Wanda Landowska. Then on Wednesday (January 15, between 11am-12pm ET), George will give away a pair of tickets to The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle’s production of Letters from Wolfgang. Actor Ron Menzel and bassoonist Chris Ullfers interpret some of the correspondence from the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Tune in and win!

On this date in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of Soviet-Russian cellist Daniil Shafran in 1923 in Petrograd (then Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg). Shafran’s parents were musicians; his father Boris was principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and was the young Shafran’s first teacher.
Read more about him here: t.ly/dRzs6

01/13/2025

The theme for this week’s Classical Conundrum is: Hobnobbing with Royalty

This composer had several royal patrons, especially an archduke to whom he dedicated a piano trio.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/11/2025

On these dates in the history of classical music:
French organist and composer Maurice Duruflé was born January 11, 1902, in Louviers. As a child, Duruflé was a chorister in the Rouen Cathedral Choir School (1912-1918) while also studying piano and organ. At 17, he moved to Paris for lessons with (and as assistant to) Charles Tournemire at Basilique Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (until 1927); in 1920 Duruflé was admitted into the Conservatoire de Paris and graduated with first prizes in organ, harmony, fugue, piano accompaniment, and composition.
Italian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice on January 12, 1876. Wolf-Ferrari studied piano, but wanted to be a painter; still he began to focus on music in his teenage years and then enrolled at the University of Theatre and Music in Munichs in counterpoint and composition.
Read more about both of them here: t.ly/L3CxX

01/11/2025

Welcome to the weekend, Listeners!
Great classical music for all your plans.

Saturday:
Join us at 1pm ET for a complete recording of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under the direction of Richard Bonynge with Adolphe Adam’s timeless and haunting ballet, Giselle.
And then Haydn Jones is on from 6pm to Midnight ET for the Saturday Evening Request Program.

Sunday:
This week’s Great Sacred Music features performances by the Dresden Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra and organist Marie-Claire Alain, and works by Palestrina, Haydn, and Liszt. Our featured work is Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 in B Flat, “Lobgesang.” Join Mick Anderson at 8am ET.
And Preview! spotlights new releases in the classical music world. This week, Tom Hayakawa features recent recordings of Barbara Harbach’s Symphony No. 13, “The Journey” and lots more, starting at 6pm ET.

01/10/2025

It's All-Request Friday, Listeners!
Join us for requests from your fellow listeners.

On this date:
A very Happy Birthday to Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an Italian-American violinist and teacher, born in Rome in 1961. She and her mother moved to the U.S. when she was eight and she became a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Salerno-Sonnenberg became the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition’s youngest prize winner in 1981 at the age of 20; she won the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1983); and she wrote an autobiography for kids (Nadja: On My Way, 1989), all while performing and recording. In 1994, she injured (an understatement) the little finger on her left hand and had to relearn compositions and perform with three fingers while it healed (and afterward). Read more about her here: t.ly/L3CxX

01/10/2025

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is January Birthdays.

Born January 10, 1710 this Italian composer had a great impact on the opera buffa (comic opera) despite dying at the young age of 26.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/09/2025

Tomorrow is All-Request Friday! Tune in to hear the requests and dedications of your fellow listeners.

Tonight, Thursday Night Opera House features the 1971 recording of Sir Colin Davis conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (John Constable, cembalo) with remarkable soloists in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). Figaro (Wladimiro Ganzarolli) and Susanna (Mirella Freni) are servants to Count Almaviva (Ingvar Wixell). As the two plan their wedding, the Count attempts to seduce Susanna, leading to a complex web of plots and schemes as everyone, including the Countess (Jessye Norman), attempts to outsmart the Count. Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET for a fun and classic comic opera.

On this day in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of French pianist and organist Henriette Puig-Roget in Bastia, Corsica, 1910. Organ-master of both the Oratoire du Louvre (1933-1979) and the Paris Synagogue (1933-1952) while she also performed as a concert pianist and organist and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris. Read more about her here: t.ly/L3CxX

01/09/2025

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is January Birthdays.

Born January 23, 1752 he is known as the “father of the piano”.

If you know the answer, you can message us! Good Luck!

01/08/2025

On this date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of Czech-American composer Jaromír Weinberger, born in 1896 in Prague. Weinberger was playing the piano at age five, and composing and conducting by age ten. While serving as director of the National Theater in Bratislava, he completed his most successful composition, his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper (Švanda Dudák), which was performed by most of the world’s foremost opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera. Read more about him here: t.ly/L3CxX

Address

Post Office Box 828
Wake Forest, NC
27588

Telephone

(800) 556-5178

Website

https://TheClassicalStation.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when WCPE TheClassicalStation posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.