Handel and Haydn Society'sMessiah - WGBH

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Celebrating the Season with Brian O’Donovan
The holidays are here, and 89.7 WGBH is ready, with
an abundance of musical gifts to help you celebrate
the season. We’ve got something for everyone: A
Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live
from King’s College on Christmas Eve, Ellen Kushner’s
The Golden Dreydl and PRI’s Kwanzaa celebration,
A Season’s Griot. Then, get ready to ring in the New
Year with NPR’s Toast of the Nation, which kicks off
in Boston’s Berklee Performance Center at 8pm with
jazz saxophone and clarinet sensation Anat Cohen.
Of course, it wouldn’t be December without
WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan (host of A Celtic Sojourn)
and his popular annual
A Christmas Celtic
Sojourn concert,
featuring a lively blend
of Celtic, pagan and
Christmas traditions.
This year’s concert
will be performed in
Boston, Worcester
and Providence, giving
you multiple opportunities
to experience this memorable and intimate
celebration of all things Celtic.
Looking to 2010, we’re pleased to announce a
new series of live concerts at our studios, the Guest
Street Sessions. The new series grows out of the
success of our Celtic Sessions—popular Friday night
gatherings organized by O’Donovan that bring
together Celtic musicians and fans. Look for jazz,
classical, world music, and news and public affairs
“Sessions” in the coming months.
AudioFile’s Jen Goebel recently caught up with
O’Donovan, the creative force behind as well as
in front of so many WGBH productions, to get the
scoop on Guest Street Sessions and the 2009 A
Christmas Celtic Sojourn concert.
QWhat are the new Guest Street Sessions?
A
We started doing Celtic Sessions as an
experiment last year, where I would invite a
group of Celtic musicians into the studios for
informal performances and casual conversation
with the audience. We started with Celtic because
I have those connections, and it was the easiest
way to test the idea. It has proven to be a huge
success.
Going forward, the Guest Street Sessions are
going to explore all genres of music, as well as the
arts and spoken word, in a way that really suits
the WGBH audience—casual, inviting, informative
and entertaining. Throughout the year, we’ll feature
classical, jazz, world music, Celtic, and news
and information.
QWhen are the Guest Street Sessions?
all going to be on Friday nights, with
A
They’re
a gathering at 6pm for a light reception,
and then going into the beautiful Fraser
Performance Studio at 7pm. In the studio, we’ll
have multiple groups from the genre, or different
news reporters and anchors if it’s a news and
information session, there to talk about their work
and have a conversation.
QWhere does the term “session” come
from?
A
The term “session” describes a casual
gathering of people to share ideas—often
musical ideas. A session is really just a period of
time where people play music, but it’s not necessarily
a pure performance—that’s the difference.
QWhat do you hope people will get out
of these sessions?
A
First of all, I hope that they’ll enjoy coming to
WGBH and getting to know us a little better.
One of the most exciting things about our move to
Brighton is the new public space—the theater,
the atrium and, of course, the Fraser Performance
Studio. With these unique gathering places, we
can offer WGBH members and listeners something
they can’t get anywhere else.
QYou wear many hats here at WGBH.
Among them, you pull together what
has become an annual tradition, the
A Christmas Celtic Sojourn concerts. How is
this year’s concert coming along?
A
It’s our seventh year. Hard to believe, but it is,
and we have a very exciting lineup this year
with artists coming from as far away as Sweden
and Edinburgh, as well as two coming from
Northern Ireland.
We have an amazing dancer joining dance
director Kieran Jordan this year, Nic Gareiss. He is
steeped not only in traditional Irish music but also
in the dances of Appalachia. The kids from the
Harney Academy of Irish Dance were a big hit last
year, and they will return this year. And we added
PALS chorus, a Brookline-based chorus of children
who provide the children’s chorus segments to the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and to Tanglewood.
They’re a highly prized chorus, and they will be
joining us on stage as well. I’m very excited about
that, actually. It’s a new twist for us.
Find out more about the Guest Street Sessions at
wgbh.org/events.
Brian’s Holiday Pick
CD: Noels Celtiques: Celtic Christmas
Music from Brittany by Ensemble Choral du
Bout du Monde (Green Linnet)
Schedules, program info, playlists: wgbh.org/listen
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