This recording features bassists Michael Rittling (the dedicatee), Adam Cobb, and Ali Cook.  They are all graduates of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

In June of 2009, Iran held a presidential election. When it was announced that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won, there were violent protests by the opposition, who were certain that the results were fraudulent. A young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan was on her way, with her father and music teacher, to one of these protests in Tehran. She had just gotten out of her car, still a distance away from where the main protest was occurring, when she was shot in the chest by a government sharpshooter. Tragically, this story is not unique. It was that fact that her death had been caught on a cell phone's video camera that made Neda a martyr and a symbol for the Iranian protesters. The video spread throughout the internet, despite the efforts of the Iranian government to censor websites, twitter, and text messages.

The trio covers a wide range of emotion; some sections are quite violent while others are elegiac–juxtaposing the rage against mourning. Moved and deeply troubled by seeing the video, I composed this trio for double basses to lament not only Neda's death, but those of the countless men and women who gave their lives to inch, ever so slowly, toward a peaceful Iran.

To watch the YouTube video, click here.