Many of us look forward to and perhaps need that jolt of morning caffeine to start our day. Another way to wake up is to listen to exciting music. From Schubert to Shostakovich, this show kicks off the Classical Marathon and will get you moving early, ready to tackle your day and excited for another classical music marathon.

The first in our series of shows exploring the music of different centuries, 1622 presents music from a Europe in flux. You'll hear music from James I's court by Thomas Tomkins and Orlando Gibbons; sacred works by German composers Heinrich Schutz and Samuel Scheidt caught up in the Thirty Years' War. Music from the court of Louis XIII, emboiled with the Hugenout uprisings by Pierre Guédron and Denis Gaultier. And even some tunes by Thomas Ravenscroft that were sung in Jamestown!

Climb musical peaks and explore hidden valleys of music, inspired by traditional cultures and modern influences, from the countries of the Himalayan region: Bhutan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, and Pakistan.

WTJU brings you a much lauded recording of one of Gustav Mahler’s most celebrated works. Dubbed the “Symphony of a Thousand” when it premiered in 1910, the Eighth Symphony was an immediate success and the last work premiered during the composer's lifetime. Through lyrics and musical motifs, Mahler expresses a profoundly positive vision of humanity. Today’s recording, which won three Grammys in 1973, features the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti.

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today’s most popular musicians. The Juilliard graduate’s style has been called neo-impressionistic and his works are programmed worldwide. We’ll focus on his choral and vocal pieces including selections recorded by Voces8.

Stately or wild, solo or multiple participants, dances were designed for many reasons but mainly so that people could enjoy movement. Join Penelope and Thann as they explore European dances from many times.

Josquin casts such a long shadow over his era that it is a common misconception that his is the only music from that time worth hearing. The fledgling music publishing industry didn't help much; realizing that Josquin's name by itself could sell their wares, they applied it to everything under the sun, effectively doubling the size of his actual worklist. Much of the music of Josquin's peers is outstanding in its own right, and Uncle Dave Lewis and Andrew Morgan will attempt to hit some of the highlights in this rare subsegment of the renaissance era.

12 years ago, Martin Scorsese’s film Shutter Island was released with one of the most compelling soundtracks of the century. Compositions from Mahler, Cage, Ligeti, and Penderecki produced an atmosphere of psychological unraveling merged with spectral transcendence. Will return to Shutter Island in an attempt to recreate the scene, or the sensation, calling on the likes of Morton Feldman and Brian Eno to guide the way.

Join Ralph Graves as he wiles away the late evening and early morning hours with glorious music. He'll be featuring recent recordings and even some music of the season!

Gould is famous for his interpretations of JS Bach's music, but he recorded so much more—this year marks the 90th anniversary of his birth, and the 40th of his death, and we honor his legacy by exploring his hundreds of recordings.

Second in our series of programs exploring classical music through the centuries, 1722 stands tall as the year Bach compiled the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. But by the end of his life Bach's music had fallen out of favor, and his worthy contemporaries, including well-known composers such as Handel, achieved greater fame during their lifetime. We'll explore the works of all the leading lights during this period.

Remember that host Chelsea who would program Charles Ives at 7am on a Monday? Well she’s back and sharing her Hot Takes with you this marathon season. Listeners can expect to hear Chelsea defend her views on the American music she loves from Florence Price to Charles Ives, and everything in between. And bonus round - she’ll introduce and explain American slang past and present with every back announcement. Listeners are encouraged to call in and share whether they agree with Chelsea’s musical opinions and share a donation as well.

The Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) were allegedly composed as a job application. This master work demonstrates Monteverdi's grounding in the sublime polyphony of the Renaissance period of Classical music, which he referred to as "prima pratica". Other movements are forward looking to the Baroque era with the addition of a continuo and other characteristics of what Monteverdi referred to as the "seconda pratica". The Vespers are a clear example of Monteverdi’s role as a "bridge" composer, facilitating the transition in periods from Renaissance to Baroque.

Since the birth of classical music, women who dared to compose have been patronized, marginalized, and minimalized. Conventional wisdom has questioned what women could and couldn’t do, including in music, where the domain of musical composition has been historically dominated by men. The situation is better today, but many women composers have been unfairly forgotten. This show will spend two hours exploring a few of these composers, past and present.

Meredith Monk is a fearless explorer of all dimensions of the human voice, and a composer with an immensely appealing and singular musical perspective. We celebrate her 80th birthday in 2022 with this special show highlighting both her music and her voice.

Classical host Allen Hench returns to WTJU for a show devoted to holiday-themed music from the world of opera and the ballet.

It was common for a parent to pass his or her composing abilities down to a child, but what if there were more than one? Are there siblings all of whom had the composing gene? Join Penelope and Thann as they explore sibling composers.

Join Ralph Graves as he wiles away the late evening and early morning hours with glorious music. He'll be featuring recent recordings and even some music of the season!

Ralph and Ken once again dive into the 1963 Reader's Digest collection, "A Classical Treasury," It supposedly collected the greatest melodies in classical music -- a collection of instant culture. But on these LPs are indeed some of the best-loved classical works of all time. Tune in -- perhaps we'll play one of your favorites!

The third in our series exploring the music of different centuries takes us to an exciting fulcrum between the Classical and Romantic eras, 1822, a year in which the towering achievements of Beethoven’s final piano sonata and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony were begotten alongside the modest forays of Liszt’s and Mendolsshon’s first published works. With the added spices of Hummel’s Birthday Cantata for Goethe and Giuliani’s Serenade for Guitar, this is a year not to be missed.

This program will explore composers from Central and South American countries, with some focus on classical guitar pieces. From Mexico and Cuba, all the way to Brazil and Argentina, Latin America has produced more than just excellent classical guitarists and nuevo tango. Its outstanding composers even include a Mozart. Por favor escucha!

Kick back and prepare to be dazzled by scintillating performances of 3 timeless masterpieces for piano and organ: an electric, live performance by Martha Argerich and Riccardo Chailly of Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto; a virtuosic performance by Friedrich Gulda of the Waldstein—one of Beethoven's most technically challenging piano sonatas; and a renowned recording of Saint-Saëns’ radiant Symphony No. 3 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Berj Zamkochian at the organ.

In Western music, Impressionism borrows its name from painting, roughly indicating a sound suggested rather than stated. Since the 1890s this sound has taken hold in the bloodstream of music, but where did it come from and, from there, where did it go? Join Uncle Dave Lewis as he picks up and follows the thread of impressionism.

Superb choral music by French, German, American and other non-British composers.

Join Brian and Kyle for a special Wednesday night edition of A New Sound as they explore the music of David Lang. The centerpiece of the program will be “The Little Match Girl Passion,” music inspired both by Hans Christian Andersen’s haunting story of the same name and J. S. Bach’s gripping St. Matthew Passion. While you listen, give modern and contemporary classical music your vote of confidence by making a pledge of support to WTJU!

In 1977-78, English musician Brian Eno joined Germans Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius for two collaborative albums that pioneered ambient music and its goal "to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular" (from Eno's liner notes to Ambient 1, which is credited with introducing the name 'ambient music'). These three artists, credited together simply as 'Eno Moebius Roedelius', blended traditional piano and guitar with novel electronic sounds to create textured and atmospheric songs that served as background "furniture music", as Erik Satie had envisioned 50 years before, or that instead could reward close listening.

Join Ralph Graves as he wiles away the late evening and early morning hours with glorious music. He'll be featuring recent recordings and even some music of the season!

Music can be a pivotal part of what makes a movie great. The Hollywood Sound dives into the world of film music, presenting the music that's made the movies great. We'll listen to tracks from composers like John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, John Barry, and many more. Enjoy old favorites, hear some exciting new cuts, and reexperience some of your favorite movie moments through the power of music.

Our fourth installment features 1922, or what poet Ezra Pound christened Year 1, post-scriptum Ulysses. It was one year after James Joyce completed his monumental novel, and the worlds of literature, art, and music converged in that tempestuous mix of post-war euphoria and perpetual technological progress. It was the year Ravel orchestrated Pictures at an Exhibition, the Bauhaus design school premiered its Triadic Ballet, and Peter Warlock set the poetry of W.B. Yeats to music. 1922 was the year modernism took over the world, and arguably never gave it back. Like lunching at Paris’s Majestic Hotel, we will mingle among the stars who turned art into pure celebrity.

Who knows what Classical African music would be like if there had not been colonialism, and what many call cultural genocide, of the African people? There are those who are seeking the answers among the masters of traditional instruments, griots, and young African composers. Additionally, there are native- born Africans playing classical music from traditional Western sources. This show features all of them, and include: Njabulo Madlala, Allan Stephenson, Bassekou Koiuyate, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, and many others.

Begun in memory of his friend Robert Schumann and completed after the death of his mother, Brahms' A German Requiem is atypical: it uses excerpts Brahms chose from the Luther Bible rather than the standard Latin text. More importantly, it is not primarily a Mass for the dead but rather intended as comfort for the living and a meditation on mortality. We'll listen to the acclaimed recording conducted by Otto Klemperer with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as soloists, one of the great recordings of the 20th century.

Violinist and Charlottesville native David McCormick of Early Music Access Project returns to the WTJU Classical Marathon to once again offer highlights from his personal collection of early music recordings. His selections run the gamut from medieval tunes performed by his New York-based ensemble Alkemie to a Beethoven violin sonata on gut strings.

Contrary to popular belief, there were more composers active in music between 1750-1820 than Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Not Classic Classical will exhibit those less heard, but not necessarily less worthy, composers of the Classical period, from the galant Stamitz and C.P.E Bach, to the proto-Romantic von Weber and Field.

Two of the finest Latin American-born pianists of the 20th Century were Brazilian Nelson Freire and Cuban Jorge Bolet. Although both of them made their careers primarily in the United States, they maintained their Latin roots. Their playing styles could hardly be more different, although both could trace their lineage through their teachers back to Liszt. We will hear noteworthy examples of their performances in this special Marathon tribute to these great Latin American artists.

Considered by many critics, scholars, musicians, and listeners alike to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, John Adams’ 75th birthday is an opportunity for us to step back and consider his music and legacy. Join us for two hours of sounds that evoke the stirring California coast, the drama of American foreign policy, sprawling metropolises, and so much more.

Join Ralph Graves as he wiles away the late evening and early morning hours with glorious music. He'll be featuring recent recordings and even some music of the season!

Celebrate the music of composers who also demonstrated athletic prowess, such as Joseph Boulogne (champion fencer) and Felix Mendelssohn (gymnast and swimmer).

The fifth in our series of shows exploring the music of different centuries, 2022 presents a snapshot of the classical music world right now. Major events and trends this year include the most normal season of live performance since the pandemic began; the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompting a sustained reflection on the importance of Ukrainian music and composers; and classical music’s continued work to better champion music by female composers and composers of color. We’ll highlight some of 2022’s best recordings and new compositions, with works by Valentin SIlvestrov and other Ukrainian composers, Caroline Shaw, Julius Eastman and many others.

Despite its reputation as a barren vastness of frozen, lifeless tundra, the Arctic landscape is rich in ecological, geological, and biological diversity. True the trees aren’t as tall and the summers are quite short, but the sights and sounds of the Arctic environment have inspired composers for centuries. From the Norwegian Highlands to the cleaving glaciers of Greenland, we will hear music from the 1800s to today that brings the Arctic to life.

The brooding Fourth was premiered in 1911, in an atmosphere of foreboding, anticipating a European war. Our recording is from a live performance on December 8, 1957, a date that would have been the composer’s 92nd birthday. He had died just months previously. The New York Philharmonic was conducted by fellow Finn Martti Similä. The recording has been remastered by archivist Andrew Rose.

Last year's favorite returns! Take a sound bath with Baby Shampoo as she lathers in the healing suds of Gregorian chants and New Age trance. Transcend the trappings of decorum and soak for two hours in unbridled tranquility. Pledge your parasympathetic support for community radio shamanism and receive a unique gift.

Born in 1942, Daniel Barenboim has won seven Grammy awards; is an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire and received the French Legion of Honour; and is fluent in at least six languages. In this show, we explore Barenboim the pianist, featuring him as soloist, a member of duets, trios, and quartets, and leading a concerto from the keyboard.

Sounds of the season featuring songs from Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Julie Andrews, Bing Crosby, and even the Muppets! Tune in to hear your favorite holiday songs from your favorite Hollywood movies.

While there is much to love about J. S. Bach’s music on its own terms, a number of artists have taken Bach’s original compositions and transformed them anew. For this program, we will listen to some of the best known transcriptions of Bach’s music, as well as a few hidden treasures.

Join Ralph Graves as he wiles away the late evening and early morning hours with glorious music. He'll be featuring recent recordings and even some music of the season!

Part One of this 2-part series (that seems to be becoming an annual Christmas Marathon tradition) will feature Christmas music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods of Classical music. The show will include new recordings as well as older favorites. While many of the chants and dances we have from the Middle Ages are attributed to that ubiquitous early music composer, “Anonymous,” we have a few hymns and chants attributed to a composer (Hildegarde von Bingen), or abbey (“Nuns of Chester”). The Renaissance period, by contrast, brings us many favorite Christmas melodies, hymns, anthems, motets, and masses. Featured composers will include Josquin des Prez (Ave Maria), Palestrina, Michael Praetorius (Es ist ein Ros’), Walter (Joseph, lieber), Mouton (nasciens mater), and many more.

Beautiful choral music from the British isles sung by the best choirs and ensembles from around world, spanning four centuries of musical delights, a perennial marathon offering and favourite.

The 20th century, with the riotous Rite of Spring, the serial adventures of the Second Viennese School, and the electronic escapades of Stockhausen and Babbitt was a wild time in music. But some composers refused to budge. This show will exalt those such as Holst, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Sibelius, who, though adventurous in their own rights, always found a way back to the I chord.

You may associate Brazil with samba and bossa nova, but this nation also has a proud tradition of classical music composers, many of home have skillfully interwoven traditional Brazilian folk elements into their works.

In this corner represented by Classical Sunrise host Andrew Morgan, we have the cello and piano. In the other corner, journeyman Peter Jones brings us the violin and organ. All four instruments will come out swinging, but which duo shall reign supreme?

This show is about percussion – banging on a drum, clapping out rhythms, tapping gently with a mallet, or a combination – all in the pursuit of making one of the most ancient forms of music we know. Artists will include Steve Reich, Evelyn Glennie, Beethoven, Colin Currie, Pei-Ching Wu, and I-Jen Fang.

Join us for classic tunes of the Grateful Dead played by acts such as Holly Bowling, the Russian National Orchestra, the Midnite String Quartet and Von Cello.

Back by popular demand, WTJU will air Max Richter's transcendent SLEEP in its 8.5 hour entirety. We hope you will tune in and listen to its calming chords, and keep the radio on when you slumber off to bed. Indeed, the piece is meant to aid you in your sleep and its many stages, building toward a radiant conclusion as the sun rises.

Part Two of this two-part series (that seems to be becoming an annual Christmas Marathon tradition) will feature Christmas music from the Baroque period of Classical music. Characterized by its bright, ornamented style, this period has produced some of the most familiar and beloved music for the Christmas season. You can expect to hear favorite excerpts from Handel’s Messiah, along with familiar carols and hymns from Bach, Praetorius, Charpentier, Gabrieli, and more.

Join us for the first annual WTJU Classical Quiz Show! Compete against other listeners for prizes and glory in this friendly test of your classical music, instruments, and history knowledge. While you play, you’ll also hear a local panel of experts take on fiendishly difficult questions. Prizes will be awarded for winning rounds, as well as lightning rounds and participation. Each round is sponsored by a local classical music ensemble.

Each week, Offstage, On-Air brings local classical musicians into the WTJU studio for conversation and curated playlists. For this marathon edition, host Brian Simalchik and producer Jay Baker will share favorite moments and music from Offstage's first 13 episodes.

Probably the best-known South American composer of the 19th Century was Brazilian-born Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836-96). He studied at the Milan Conservatory and was the first New World composer whose work was accepted in Europe. He was a contemporary of Verdi and Puccini, and the influence of those great composers is evident in his penultimate opera Lo schiavo (“The Slave”), a rare performance of which we will hear on this special Marathon edition of the Sunday Opera Matinee.

A special 2-hour edition of the King of Instruments, monumental music for the pipe organ featuring great instruments from around the world performed by some of the greatest talent, past and present.

The yearly tradition returns! Join members of WTJU's Classical Department for the penultimate program of the marathon: a broadcast of the complete Messiah.

It's the return of the big closing crescendo, as Radio Wowsville's Don, Rick and Colin conclude the 2022 Classical Marathon with an ear-dosing assembly of the best and freakiest string and orchestra-fueled psychedelia on record. Percy, Dicky and Lord Rompy Pompy will also be present (but not amused).