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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!
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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

12/09/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum them is the History of Carols.

What is historically recognized as the first Christmas carol?

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

12/07/2024

Hello, Weekend! YES.

Tonight, join Haydn Jones for the Saturday Evening Request Program at 6pm ET.

Then on Sunday, Great Sacred Music features performances by the Raleigh Ringers, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and the Amadeus Choir, and works by Thomas Tallis, Peter Warlock, Pietro Locatelli, and others, including Felix Mendelssohn’s Magnificat in D. Join Mick Anderson at 8am ET, right after Sing for Joy.
And at 6pm ET, join Tom Hayakawa for Preview! and some new releases from the classical music world, along with Rob Kennedy’s interview with pianist Martin Jones.

On these dates in classical music history:
Austrian composer Ernst Toch was born December 7, 1887, in Leopoldstadt, Vienna. Toch studied philosophy at the University of Vienna; medicine at Heidelberg University; and then music at Frankfurt’s Hoch Conservatory (1909–1913), where he became a famed pianist.
Hungarian violinist and composer Zoltán Székely was born in Kocs on December 8, 1903. Székely’s father played the violin as his mother sang folk songs; he was fascinated with the violin and studied the instrument with Jenő Hubay and composition with Zoltán Kodály at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.
Read more about both of them here: t.ly/RgSQi

Ernst Toch, date unknown. (Schott Music – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Zoltán Székely with Béla Bartók (at the piano), c. 1925. (Courtesy of The Székely Collection)

12/06/2024

Happy Friday, Listeners!

It’s All-Request Friday and we’re playing your favorites and dedications! (And we’ll do it again tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program). If there’s a classical work you’d like to hear next week, go ahead and make your request here: t.ly/bynGD

HEADS-UP: Ticket Giveaway, Wednesday 11 December
Tune into Classical Café with George Leef on Wednesday (December 11, between 11am-12pm ET) for a chance to win tickets to the Carolina Ballet production of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

On today’s date in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of Spanish-Mexican pianist and composer Emiliana de Zubeldía in 1888 in Salinas de Oro, Navarre, in northern Spain. Zubeldía began her formal music studies in Pamplona, then entered the Schola Cantorum in Paris in 1904 to study piano and composition. She toured and performed in South America in 1928, then moved to New York City in 1930, where she met Andrés Segovia and Nicanor Zabaleta; the three made broadcasts about Spanish music from Radio City Music Hall in 1933-1934.
Read about her here: t.ly/RgSQi

12/06/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: The Nutcracker Ballet!
Who gives Clara the nutcracker doll?
If you know the answer, you can message us. Good Luck!

12/05/2024

This week’s Thursday Night Opera House features a 1994 recording of Carlo Rizzi conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Opera Chorus, and wondrous soloists in Giochino Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella). The familiar tale of Angelina, known as Cenerentola (Jennifer Larmore), who has the chance to impress the prince, Don Ramiro (Raúl Giménez), at the ball.
Could it be that simple? Not likely.
Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET for all the drama and love.

In this week’s Classical Considerations, Matthew Young takes us on a tour of Christmas Classics Through History. Classical music often gets referenced as a monolithic genre, but in truth, it’s a rich tapestry of evolving styles, instruments, and traditions. t.ly/ql3kS

On this date in the history of classical music:
A very Happy Birthday to Polish pianist and conductor Krystian Zimerman, born in Zabrze in 1956. He studied at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, then won the 1973 Ludwig van Beethoven International Piano Competition, and then gained international fame when he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition in 1975, at the age of 18. Read more about him here: t.ly/RgSQi

12/05/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: The Nutcracker Ballet!
What short story is The Nutcracker ballet based on, and who is the author?
If you know the answer, you can message us. Good Luck!

12/04/2024

If you're thinking about gifts for those classical music lovers in your life, consider giving them a membership to The Classical Station (t.ly/oHhKA). A contribution OF ANY AMOUNT helps to sustain our broadcast of the music we all love. You could also use a Day Dedication (t.ly/xMGWs) to let them know you’re thinking about them. What great gifts!

On this date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of Welsh-English composer and pianist John Jeffreys in Thanet, Kent, in 1927. Jeffreys was inspired to write songs by his mother, who passed down the Welsh folksongs she’d grown up with, and his father, a Congregational minister who liked poetry. Read more about him here: t.ly/RgSQi

12/04/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: The Nutcracker Ballet!

Who ruled the Land of Sweets?

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

12/03/2024

It's Giving Tuesday!

The Classical Station is fully listener-supported, relying on generous contributions from individuals and local businesses to bring you high-quality Classical music every day, on the radio and online. Today, please consider donating to help sustain the cultural and educational benefits of Classical music for everyone.
Donate here: t.ly/2K6yl
We thank you!

12/03/2024

Tomorrow during Classical Café (Wed 4 Dec between 11am-12pm ET), George Leef will give away a pack of four tickets to see Cary Ballet Company‘s production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker. Good luck!

And don’t forget to make requests for All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program, your favorites and dedications, right here: t.ly/5jzLf

On this date in the history of classical music:
A very Happy Birthday to Uruguayan conductor and composer José Serebrier, born in Montevideo in 1938. By the age of 15, he’d studied Latin American folklore, violin and solfège, and he had already conducted and toured in more than 100 performances with his school orchestra. He was 17 when Leopold Stokowski premiered his own Symphony No. 1 in One Movement. Read more about him here: t.ly/RgSQi

José Serebrier at Cadogan Hall, London, 2018. (Publicity photo by Clive Arda, ArenaPAL)

12/03/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: The Nutcracker Ballet!

According to German folklore, why are nutcrackers given as keepsakes?

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

12/02/2024

It's a new week! Thank you so much for spending your time with us and for your support.

This week’s Monday Night at the Symphony features the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and includes music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and a piano concerto by Eugen d’Albert, conducted by Alun Francis, Takuo Yuasa, Donald Runnicles, and more. Join us for the symphony at 8pm ET.

Tune into Classical Café with George Leef tomorrow (and every Tuesday) for his weekly Legendary Performer feature; this week it’s pianist Emil Gilels. And on Wednesday (December 4, between 11am-12pm ET), he’ll give away a pair of tickets to Cary Ballet Company The Nutcracker.

On this date:
It’s the birthdate of British pianist Harriet Cohen in London in 1895. Cohen entered piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 12; she made her performance debut in London in 1914; and in 1920, she gave her first major performance in a recital with tenor John Coates. Cohen was also an activist who helped publicize the troubles of German and Austrian Jews in the 1930s; she played a fundraising concert with scientist Albert Einstein (he played the violin) to bring Jewish scientists out of Germany.
Read more about her here: t.ly/RgSQi

12/02/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: The Nutcracker Ballet!

When and where did The Nutcracker have its premiere?

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

11/30/2024

It's the weekend!
Join Haydn Jones at 6pm ET for the Saturday Evening Request Program.

Tomorrow on this week’s Great Sacred Music, performances by Elektra Women’s Choir; Apollo’s Fire; and Chanticleer. You’ll hear works by Sir William Walton; Claudio Monteverdi; Francis Poulenc, and others. This week’s featured work is Sir John Rutter’s Magnificat. Join Mick Anderson at 8am ET. And Preview! spotlights new recordings in the classical music world and features Rob Kennedy’s interview with pianist Hyewon Chang about her latest release, Fantaisie Reflections on the Navona label.
Join Tom Hayakawa at 6pm ET.

On these dates:
French pianist and composer Charles-Valentin Alkan was born November 30, 1813, in Paris. Alkan was a prodigy and he entered studies at the Conservatoire in both piano and organ at the age of five; at seven, Alkan won a first prize for solfège (he also gave his first public performance that year, playing the violin), then he won prizes in piano (1824), harmony (1827), and organ (1834).
And Norwegian pianist and composer Agathe Backer Grøndahl was born in Homestrand on December 1, 1847, and she was 10 when her family moved to Kristiania (now Oslo). Backer Grøndahl’s parents were initially resistant to the idea of her formal studies in music, but they relented once they were settled in Oslo; she studied with a number of composers, attended the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin in the mid 1860s, and also studied with Hans von Bülow in Florence and Franz Liszt in Weimar.
Read more about both of them here: t.ly/uBYch

11/29/2024

HEADS-UP: TICKET GIVEAWAY
Tune into Classical Café with George Leef next Wednesday (December 4, between 11am-12pm ET) for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the Cary Ballet Company production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. More information here: t.ly/34EiC

On today’s date:
It’s the birthdate of Italian composer Domenico Gaetano Donizetti in 1797 in Bergamo. He had already written nine operas by 1822. Read more about him here: t.ly/uBYch

11/29/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: Composers and Educational Institutions.

What university did Johannes Brahms compose the Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80.

If you know the answer, you can message us!

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving!
Wherever you are, we’re so glad you’re listening. We hear from lovers of our station every day through phone calls, emails, written letters, and social media, and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to earn those compliments and to keep bringing you the classical music that you (and we) all love.
Your support has made that possible since 1978.
As we approach the end of 2024, please consider The Classical Station in your year-end giving. Donations are what keep us on the air, sounding wonderful. (All those nice messages help, too). Thank you!
Donate here: t.ly/2K6yl

On this date in the history of classical music:
It’s the birthdate of German pianist and composer Ferdinand Ries, born in 1784 in Bonn. Ries had his earliest piano lessons from his father Franz, then with Bernhard Romberg, a cellist in the Bonn Hofkapelle. In 1798, Ries went to Arnsberg for organ training, then to Munich where he tried to support himself as a music copyist. He was penniless when he made a new start in 1803 in Vienna, equipped only with a letter of introduction from composer Carl Cannabich for Ries’s next teacher, Ludwig van Beethoven, who had also had early instruction from Ries’s father. Read more about him here: t.ly/uBYch

11/28/2024

This week’s Classical Conundrum Theme is: Composers and Educational Institutions.

How many movements are in Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Charterhouse Suite?

If you know the answer, you can message us!

Address

Post Office Box 828
Wake Forest, NC
27588

Telephone

(800) 556-5178

Website

https://TheClassicalStation.org/

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