Classical 95.9-FM WCRI

This week on Jazz After Dinner, Joe features Saxophonist Sonny Rollins from his 1956 Blue Note Records recording titled “Volume Two.

The Kingston Chamber Music Festival is the subject of this week's program with Natalie Zhu, Artistic Director. We talk about the upcoming Festival and listen to some of the amazing music that will be presented from July 24th to August 2nd. For more information, you can go to www.kingstonchambermusic.org

This week on Jazz After Dinner, Joe features Saxophonist Sonny Rollins from his 1956 Blue Note Records recording, titled “Volume One.”

Theatre By The Sea's production of Grease is the subject of this week's program, with Nick Cortazzo, who plays Danny, and Andrew Tufano, who plays Sonny. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the show's very popular songs, which run from June 25th to July 18th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Katherine Center about her new book, The Shippers.
Author Bio:
BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of over half a dozen books, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and What You Wish For. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Her books have made countless Best-Of lists, including RealSimple’s Best Books of 2020, Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2019, Goodreads' Best Books of the Year, and many more. Bestselling author Emily Henry calls her summer 2022 book, The Bodyguard, “a shot of pure joy.” The movie adaptation of Katherine’s novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix, and her novel Happiness for Beginners is now a Netflix original starring Ellie Kemper. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.
Book Summary:
She wants him to help her woo someone else.Genius. Foolproof. Can’t go wrong.
After a lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton vows to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. Armed with pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest). Determined to woo him for closure, she ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, as her wingman. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but showed up anyway. Cooper: who moved to London without a word four years ago. Cooper: who broke her heart.
Shipboard antics abound in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance, as JoJo and Cooper team up, fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, get jealous, answer long-held questions, and finally, at last, discover truths about each other that will change everything.
 
For more information about Katherine Center, visit katherinecenter.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com
 

This week on Jazz After Dinner, Joe features Saxophonist Sonny Rollins from his 1957 Blue Note Records recording, titled “A Night At The Village Vanguard, Vol 2.”

This special Conducting Conversations program features Artist Del-Bourree and Kristen Bach. We discuss their amazing artistic talents and their involvement with the local community. For more information, you can go to www.del-bourreebach.com

On this week's 95.9 Company Break, we speak with the Director of Marketing and Sales for StoneRidge Active Retirement Living in Mystic, CT, Jamie Cornell. She updates us on the latest developments at StoneRidge as we head into 2026 and 2027! Located just two miles from the riverfront, StoneRidge is a senior living community of doers and thinkers, artists and educators, lifelong learners, and dedicated volunteers. We support each other, learn from one another, and enjoy each other’s company. New retirement community residents tell us they’re surprised at how quickly everyone knows their name. Visit us, and it won’t be long before you feel connected to the people here. People who, like you, want to continue an active lifestyle in a corner of Connecticut close to their hearts. For more information, call 860-333-8995 or visit www.stoneridgelcs.com

In this week's WCRI's Kids Hour, your host Jamie listens to music from the first four Toy Story films as we get ready for the release of Toy Story 5. We take a trip back and hear all your favorites, including You've Got A Friend In Me, When Somebody Loved Me, and other pieces from these scores by Randy Newman!

This week, Joe is featuring Saxophonist Sonny Rollins from his 1957 Blue Note Records recording, titled “A Night At The Village Vanguard, Vol 1.”

The LaGrua Center in Stonington, CT, is the subject of this week's program with Dan Brandl, Executive Director. We talk about what has been happening at the Center, the upcoming events this season, and the Music Matters series that continues to run. For more information, you can go to www.lagruacenter.org
 

In this episode of This Old Tree, with Doug Still...Sa Melabrina is a Downy Oak tree the size of a small church, draped in moss and ferns. Her ancient arms spread wide in the surrounding forest near Illorai, Sardinia. She's the oldest and largest of her kind in all of Europe. And she's been standing here in these mountains for nine centuries.
What she symbolizes is even greater than her beauty.
The town’s mayor organized a remarkable conference drawing scientists, conservationists, and community leaders from across Sardinia and beyond, all united around a single idea: that Sardinia's ancient trees, its oldest living landmarks, could form a network worth protecting, visiting, and fighting for.
There is something else at stake. Sardinia's small towns are quietly shrinking. Depopulation is hollowing out villages that have survived for millennia. Saving these old trees is vital, but Sardinia's leaders ask a new type of question:
Can Sa Melabrina and Sardinia’s monumental trees save its small towns?

This week, Joe is featuring Cornetist Jim Cullum from his 1993 Stomp Off Records recording, titled “Shootin’ The Agate.” 

The Narragansett Bay Symphony Community Orchestra is the subject of this week's program with Thomas Kociela, Guest Conductor, and President Greg Henninger. We talk about their upcoming concert and listen to some of the music that will be presented on June 7th at 3 PM at the E. Providence H. S. Auditorium. For more information, you can call (401) 274-4578 or go to www.nabsco.org

This week on Jazz After Dinner, Joe features Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross from their 1989 Columbia Records recording, titled “Everybody’s Boppin’”.
 

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Marian McPartland from her 1998 Concord Records recording, titled “Just Friends.”

Theatre By The Sea's opening production of the 2026 season, Little Shop of Horrors, is the subject of this week's program with Bob Richard, director, and Diane Laurenson, choreographer. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the show's very popular songs, which run from May 28th to June 20th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com
 

The RI Civic Choral and Orchestra is the subject of this week's program with Dr. Joshua Rohde, Music Director. We talk about their upcoming concert and listen to some of the music that will be presented on Sunday, May 31st, at Temple Beth El in Providence at 3 PM. For more information, you can call 401-521-5670 or go to www.ricco.org

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce has a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Belle Burden about her new book, Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage.
Author Bio:
Belle Burden is an attorney specializing in juvenile immigration cases. Her work has appeared in The New York Times. Belle attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College and received her JD from New York University School of Law. She lives in New York City with her three children. 
Follow Belle on Instagram @belleburden 
Book Summary:
In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume.In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through it all, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice.With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.
 
For more information about Belle Burden, belleburden.com, and for more on Deborah Goodrich Royce and her new release, Best Boy, along with information about the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Bill Evans and Vocalist Monica Zetterlund, recorded in February 1975, “Pennywhistle Music.”