Christmas carols: The good, bad and ugly

The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has become one of the nation's most cherished holiday celebrations. Listen now as the Northfield-based college presents its 2022 program, “Promise of Peace,” from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, with host Valerie Kahler, in this one-hour special.

The Minneapolis youth choir Known MPLS is making an impact in song and in community. ‘Known MPLS first and foremost exists to consistently provide a safe space for youth to thrive,’ director Courtland Pickens says. Find out more about these remarkable singers, and watch their performance of ‘Up Above My Head.’

Over three days in mid-November, the Voces8 Scholars, the U.S.-based training ensemble for the U.K.’s esteemed Voces8, recorded two Christmas songs prepared exclusively for YourClassical MPR listeners as part of our Carol Countdown. Watch now!

In ‘Dreams of the Fallen,’ Minneapolis-based composer Jake Runestad worked with a poet and war veteran to create a piece of music about post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s one of two songs he composed on the Grammy-nominated album ‘A Dream So Bright: Choral Music of Jake Runestad.’

‘Christmas With Cantus’ is a beloved holiday tradition for YourClassical MPR listeners featuring the eight voices of the male vocal ensemble live in concert.

'All Is Bright', with host Lynne Warfel, offers an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angels, the star and the manger scene. Featured artists include Cantus, Chanticleer, Cambridge Singers, Bryn Terfel, Emma Kirkby, Jessye Norman, and a variety of choirs.

Join us for ‘Songs of Thanks,’ an innovative new production by Cantus presenting stories and songs celebrating gratitude and community. Listen now — and then tell us why you’re thankful for next year’s program.

The view of one’s life’s work has taken on different meanings in societies and eras across the world. This Labor Day, join Cantus for ‘I Hear America Singing,’ a joyful examination of the role work has played in our lives in years past and how work might evolve into the future. Listen now!

Fans of four-part harmony won’t want to miss Como Chorus Cascade, a 125-voice mass choir concert Tuesday, Aug. 20, hosted by St. Paul’s North Star Chorus at Como Park Pavilion.

Louis Cole is a prolific musician known primarily as a drummer, but whose music over the past decade has fallen in the nexus of jazz, funk and rock. Now he's in a whole new space with choral and orchestral music.