All hail the wise and venerable Groundhog!

This morning on WPRB, we’ll salute the Grand Prognosticator, on his special day, with a musical menagerie of extraordinary abilities. We’ll have music about amazing animals, ranging from insects to eagles to great whales, including Francis Poulenc’s “The Model Animals,” Leoš Janáček’s “The Cunning Little Vixen Suite,” Miklós Rózsa’s “The Jungle Book,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and more. The procession begins at 6:00 EST.

Then at 10:00, we’ll have a visit from Saad Haddad, Composer, who will share some of his music and talk a bit about his use of electronic processing to suggest the sounds of his Middle Eastern heritage. Haddad’s fascinating “Manarah” was heard on a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this past Sunday.

This weekend, the PSO will present its Saturday Evening POPS! Concert. Broadway singer Sierra Boggess will join the orchestra for a program that will illustrate the transition of the musical from stage to screen and back again. The conductor for the concert will be Lucas Richman. Richman has had ample experience working in film, and his concert piece “Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant” certainly reflects a cinematic sensiblity. We’ll hear it this morning, in the 9:00 hour, supporting the clever and entertaining poems of Jack Prelutsky. Get ready to hear all about the Ballpoint Penguins, the Shoehornets, the Zipperpotamuses, and the Clocktopus.

It will be a morning of zoological and cryptozoological wonders for Groundhog Day, from 6 to 10:00 EST (Saad Haddad will join me from 10 to 11), on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be doling out the feed and shoveling up after everyone, on Classic Ross Amico.

Punxsutawney Phil is expected to make his forecast around 7:20 EST