Returning by popular demand after its acclaimed summer season, All Classical Portland’s beloved Happy Hour is back!
Holiday Happy Hour aired Friday, December 16, 2022, with your hosts Warren Black and Christa Wessel. It’s classical music… with a festive twist!
Enjoy unique interpretations of old favorites, new music, a twin-spin or two, plus previews of what’s coming up on All Classical Portland’s holiday programming. It’s the perfect recipe for a happy hour, and you’re invited!
ABOUT YOUR HOSTS
Warren Black
When I visited Portland for the first time, I decided that I wanted to live here. It would take about 15 years before I pulled it off. It’s a similar story with radio: I hosted a four-hour classical show during my freshman year of college, but many years would pass before I joined the staff of KCUR (the NPR affiliate in Kansas City) as an announcer and producer.
During those two overlapping intervals, I worked as a writer, editor, actor and voice-over artist in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle. The one unifying theme in all that time and throughout my life has been music: participating in it as a singer, writing about it, or appreciating it from the audience.
The world can be a mixed-up place. But with persistence and luck you can arrive where you’re supposed to be, doing work that you love.
Warren is the morning host weekdays from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM PT and provides production assistance to The Score.
Christa Wessel
As a kid, I learned to play French horn and immediately fell head-over-heels in love with classical music. That passion eventually took me to Northwestern University where I graduated with a degree in Arts Administration.
My career in radio was an unplanned, happy accident. The first time I found myself behind a microphone I knew that I had found my dream job. I find such joy in sharing my enthusiasm for music! I worked as a radio host at the classical station in Raleigh, NC for nearly a decade before joining the team at All Classical Portland in 2007. In my free time I enjoy stormy weekends at the coast and escaping into big juicy novels.
Christa is the late afternoon host, on the air weekdays from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM PT, as well as host and producer of On Deck with Young Musicians and Thursdays @ Three.
Photos by Christine Dong
