WKCR announces our festival honoring Maurice Ravel, broadcast on FM and HD radio for 24 hours on his birthday: March 7th, 2024. The special birthday broadcast will preempt all regularly-scheduled Thursday programming.

Maurice Ravel was a celebrated French composer and pianist known for his complex and precise orchestration and distinctive melodies. He is regarded as one of the most significant composers of the twentieth century, possessing a unique voice that developed from his love for a variety of genres. These included the French Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Spanish folk traditions, and American jazz and blues. He composed a wide variety of works such as operas, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, and vocal works. Some of his most famous works include "Boléro," "Pavane for a Dead Princess," and "Daphnis et Chloé." He is also widely known for his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

Ravel has had a monumental impact on classical music, leaving behind a rich and varied body of work. He was ahead of his time, often associated with the French avant-garde and simultaneously non-French musical traditions. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ravel was considered to be France’s greatest living composer. At the same time, he is important to the history of American classical music, as he met and was influenced by George Gershwin during a tour of North America.

Schedule:

12am-2am: Orchestral Works
2am-4am: Ballets
4am- 6am: potpourri
6am-9am: Vocal Works
9am-12pm: Operettas
12pm-3pm: Orchestral Works
3pm-6pm: Piano Works
6pm-9pm: Ravel as an Orchestrator
9pm-12am: Chamber Works

The broadcast will feature live programming highlighting music from the WKCR archives. Follow WKCR on Instagram (@wkcr) and Twitter (@WKCRFM) for further updates. Online listening is available 24/7 at wkcr.org via our web stream.