Announcing the Recording Inclusivity Initiative’s Third Album: AWAKEN
All Classical Radio’s award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative (RII) is thrilled to announce its third album: AWAKEN.
Released on GRAMMY® award-winning Navona Records and PARMA Recordings, RII Vol. 3: AWAKEN will be available on all major streaming platforms and in the All Classical Gift Shop on July 10, 2026.
Featuring music by contemporary composers Kirsten Volness — All Classical Radio’s 2026 Composer in Residence — Nicole Buetti, and Nancy Ives, AWAKEN casts women musicians in the spotlight. All Classical Radio’s Recording Inclusivity Initiative was created to address the gap of classical music composers from underrepresented communities who make it into the concert hall and onto radio airwaves. With classical music radio stations across the nation, All Classical Radio is working to update America’s playlists by producing new high quality recordings by underrepresented composers.
The new album features never-before-recorded chamber pieces by Kirsten Volness and Nicole Buetti, and an expansive orchestral work by Nancy Ives. Volness’s piece little tiny stone, full of blue fire was inspired by Dorothea Lasky’s dreamlike 2011 poem “Beyond the Blue Seas.” Lasky’s evocation of blue fire reminded Volness of the newly discovered YInMn Blue, a brilliant inorganic blue pigment created by accident at Oregon State University in 2009. The poem served as inspiration, exploring surreal images of a long journey, sacrifice, self-actualization through transformation, and cyclic inevitability. little tiny stone, full of blue fire is scored for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. It was commissioned in 2016 by Hub New Music.
On Innovative Elegance, Buetti’s trio for flute, violin, and piano, she honors All Classical Radio’s pioneering former president & CEO, Suzanne Nance, who led the station from 2017 to 2025. Buetti notes that the commission by Orchestra Nova Northwest is “a fun, energetic piece that reflects the brilliance, innovation, and beauty of one of Portland’s brightest stars.” Nance steered All Classical into a new era of expansion, with a focus on building community, kindness, and connection around the arts.
Ives‘s sprawling and evocative Celilo Falls anchors the album in an 11-movement multimedia musical experience, composed in collaboration with Shoshone-Bannock poet Ed Edmo and Cherokee photographer Joe Cantrell. The work combines large-scale orchestral architecture with poetry and prose to depict the history of Celilo Falls — from the Missoula floods that formed the gorge, to the inundation of the Falls in 1957, and the present-day experience of the Native communities who called the Falls home and lost so much.
Originally broadcast live on All Classical Radio in June 2025, Celilo Falls was recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland, OR. This radio premiere of the brand-new arrangement for full orchestra was performed by the Oregon Symphony, under the direction of David Danzmayr, with narration by Brent Florendo Sitwalla-Pum. The piece is a realization of an earlier version for chamber orchestra, commissioned and premiered in 2022 by Portland Chamber Orchestra.
Following All Classical’s 2025 broadcast, Celilo Falls was syndicated to radio stations across the United States at no cost. Now, All Classical Radio is proud to bring this important work to listeners around the world on AWAKEN. A stunning collection of images by Joe Cantrell enhancing the listening experience can be viewed at allclassical.org/scenes-from-celilo.
RII Vol. 3: AWAKEN will be available on streaming platforms and in the All Classical Gift Shop on July 10, 2026.
Learn more about All Classical Radio’s award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative at recordinginclusivity.allclassical.org.
ALBUM ARTISTS
KIRSTEN VOLNESS, COMPOSER
Smart, transcendent, and immersive, Kirsten Volness’ emotive soundscapes integrate electronics and modern composition techniques with jazz and pop influences. “Irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “nothing short of gorgeous” (New York Arts), each of her compositions reveals “an exquisite sound world” (New Classic LA) inspired by nature, myth, spirituality, and environmental and sociopolitical issues. She received commissions from New Music USA, ASCAP/SEAMUS, BMI Foundation, Metropolis Ensemble, The American Opera Project, and MacColl Johnson and RISCA Fellowships.
NICOLE BUETTI, COMPOSER
Nicole Buetti is an award-winning composer with over 400 recorded and published musical works in a wide variety of genres. She has been composing professionally for more than 25 years. Buetti composes extensively for chamber ensembles, large ensembles of various configurations, as well as children’s music and music for media. Prior to completing her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado, she spent a decade in the Los Angeles area working as a composer in the film and television industry. Buetti’s chamber and orchestral music have reached audiences all over the world.
NANCY IVES, COMPOSER
Composer and cellist Nancy Ives is a musical icon, having “built a career of such spectacular diversity that no summation will do her achievements justice.” (Artslandia). She offers both depth and approachability with enduring and eloquent music inspired by the natural world. Many of Ives’ projects involve working with Indigenous communities to authentically capture, amplify, and relay their stories to wider audiences, including the multimedia orchestral work Celilo Falls. With a DMA from the Manhattan School of Music, Ives is the Principal Cellist with the Oregon Symphony and serves on the Board of Directors for All Classical Radio.
ED EDMO, POET/STORYTELLER
Ed Edmo is a Shoshone-Bannock poet, playwright, performer, traditional storyteller, tour guide, and lecturer on Northwest tribal culture. Edmo offers guided tours to sacred Native sites, conducts workshops, and offers traditional storytelling performances, dramatic monologues, and lectures on issues such as cultural understanding, substance abuse, and mental health. Edmo is a published short story writer, poet, and playwright, and serves as a consultant to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.
JOE CANTRELL, PHOTOGRAPHER
Cherokee photographer Joe Martin Cantrell uses his personal depth of perspective in combination with sophisticated techniques to make visible the things that often go unseen. After two tours as a Navy officer in Vietnam, Cantrell worked as a photojournalist for UPI, Black Star, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. He has taught at Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Mount Hood Community College, and was Artist in Residence at Crow’s Shadow Institute. Cantrell carries the name of an ancestor who died on the Trail of Tears and offers his own meaningful legacy through generous contributions to benefit humanitarian causes and the arts.
Cantrell was one of over 40 creatives of the Pacific Northwest profiles in All Classical Radio’s Artist Anthology. Learn more about Joe Cantrell and the Artist Anthology at anthology.allclassical.org.
OREGON SYMPHONY
The Grammy-nominated Oregon Symphony ranks as one of America’s major orchestras. Led by Music Director David Danzmayr, the OSO presents more than 100 concerts annually, in tandem with award-winning education and community engagement programs. Entering its 128th season in 2025/2026, the Oregon Symphony is the oldest orchestra west of the Mississippi.
Learn more about Oregon Symphony the historic performance of Celilo Falls, at orsymphony.org.
RECORDING INCLUSIVITY INITIATIVE
All Classical Radio challenged listeners, Pacific Northwest artists, and performing arts organizations to nominate musical works by underrepresented classical composers to be recorded and published through the Recording Inclusivity Initiative (RII). The RII Panel and Executive Advisors, comprised of leaders from radio, recording, publishing, and performing arts industries, selected winning compositions. Living composers were offered a week-long residency with All Classical Radio and N M Bodecker Foundation, which included in-studio recording sessions, and a financial award. All selected compositions, including contemporary and posthumous works, were recorded by N M Bodecker Foundation, published if applicable, and distributed by All Classical Radio.
RII Vol. 1: AMPLIFY was released in 2022, and features compositions by Jasmine Barnes, Keyla Orozco, and Lauren McCall. AMPLIFY also includes two posthumous works by Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858-1937) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004).
RII Vol. 2: ELEVATE was released in 2024, with music by Yuko Uébayashi, Nobu Kōda, and Damien Geter.
Learn more about All Classical Radio’s award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative at recordinginclusivity.allclassical.org.
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