The holidays blaze bright as we stumble into the last days of 2025.
If holiday music is on your menu, we encourage you to head west to fill your ears with seasonal cheer. The Boston Pops are presenting a brass-heavy Holiday Pops concert at Tanglewood as part of an effort to host more concerts year-round at the grounds. We chat with some principal musicians, tubist Mike Roylance and horn player Michael Winters, and Mark Ruleison, artistic administrator for the Tanglewood Learning Institute, about the festivities and more.
We also continue our survey of the many musicians who are playing at First Night Northampton by getting local band Bunnies into the studio, perhaps the only band that includes a sitting city council member that we’ve had on the show. They fill the room with their fun, trippy, magnetic amalgam of storytelling and far-out effects.
Plus, our weekly chat with Rep. Jim McGovern gets a recap of his recent appearance on BBC World, the attempts to stem the tides of war in Venezuela, possible SNAP restrictions, the grim prospects of a health care resolution, and after all that, his hopes for the coming new year.
