© 2024 WRTI
Your Classical and Jazz Source. Celebrating 75 Years!
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

It's a Joyful Thanksgiving on WRTI 90.1: Feast on Second Helpings and Beloved Specials

Traveling may be on hold, and the gathering of friends and family may not be around the usual table this year, but no matter where you are and what you’re feasting on, WRTI’s Thanksgiving Day soundtrack is your perfect companion.

WRTI’s favorite Thanksgiving tradition, “Second Helpings," is back! Tune in for a soundtrack that goes with everything from basting to board games, from 6 AM and into the evening. And check out our Spotify Playlist for Thanksgiving!

On the classical side, Bliss Michelson has plenty of wake-up-and-start-your-day music in the morning until 10 AM, and then Melinda Whiting takes the reins until 2 PM. Sprinkled in every hour is a first—and second—helping of a beloved composer. Expect extra dollops of Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, Antonin Dvorak, Jennifer Higdown, Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Price and William Grant Still!

Thanksgiving Specials
Throughout the rest of the afternoon, enjoy three special programs full of music and stories to mark this special day of gratitude. From 2 to 3 PM is Every Good Thing, hosted by Andrea Blain, bringing you some choral treasures, including "Shenandoah" and Karl Jenkins’s Benedictus from The Armed Man.

To follow, from 3 to 5 PM, John Birge hosts Giving Thanks, where he’s joined by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas to commemorate Beethoven’s upcoming 250th anniversary, and also American poets Rita Dove and Ted Kooser, whose readings will include Kooser’s seasonal mood-setting “Winter Morning Walks."

As the day winds down, from 5 to 6 PM, you'll hear a new edition of American Sound entitled "Away from Home," with host Jennifer Hambrick leading a classical celebration of America’s folk tradition with an Anonymous 4 rendition of the "Wayfaring Stranger" and symphonic variations on songs of Woody Guthrie.

On the jazz side, the "Second Helpings" continue to accompany your meal, no matter how you are serving it, and any other activity you have planned for this year’s unconventional festivities. Miss Blue will kick things off at 6 PM with double doses of the finest in vintage jazz to make you feel at home no matter where you are this holiday. Ella Fitzgerald, Vince Guraldi, Miles Davis, Cannonball, The Basie Band and many others will satisfy your hunger for familiar dinner music.

At 9 PM, Ryan Gottlieb keeps them coming through dessert and coffee with music from Diana Krall, The Temple University Jazz Band, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock, just to name a few.

WRTI’s Thanksgiving soundtrack is double the fun, and we are thankful that we are able to bring it to you this (and every) year. Be sure to join us.