Celebration of milestones culminates in Carnegie Hall concert for UNT Regents professor

Jeff Bradetich headshot

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- It’s a year of milestones for University of North Texas Regents Professor of Double Bass Jeff Bradetich. His treasured bass turned 250 years old this year; he celebrated his 60th birthday – 50 of those years have been dedicated to playing bass; he marked 30 years of honing the skills of talented musicians in his summer strings institute; his foundation just celebrated its first decade; and now he plans to commemorate it all by performing at Carnegie Hall 35 years – almost to the day – after his debut in the prestigious venue.

“There’s something very special about a New York concert,” Bradetich said. “It’s a place people will travel to from across the world to see a performance. There are even a number of people from this area who are travelling there just to be a part of the experience.”

The program will showcase UNT talent, from faculty, to students and even famed alumnae – Russian pianist Anastasia Markina and the Metropolitan Opera’s Latonia Moore.

“I was reading through the program and it was wonderful. But, I still felt like something was missing,” Bradetich said. “I remembered Latonia from when she was a student and decided to reach out to her. I am thrilled that she was interested.”

The concert will be held in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall Nov. 17 (Friday) at 8 p.m. The first half of the performance will feature visiting professor Christoph Hammer on harpsichord and fortepiano and Cynthia Roberts, principal lecturer, on Baroque violin. The second half of the performance features Markina and a set of three songs with Moore presenting a new arrangement of Jake Heggie’s aria “Si, son io.”

The event will culminate with a world premiere of Argentinian composer Andres Martin’s Temperamental.

“Everyone will return to the stage for a very special encore,” Bradetich said. “It will be a high-energy tribute to the versatility of the bass.”

For those who can’t make it to the New York performance, Bradetich is holding a special Carnegie Hall preview concert at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 12 (Sunday) in Paul Voertman Concert Hall, located in the UNT College of Music Building at 415 S. Ave. C, Denton.

“This show is a wonderful opportunity for us to not only have a trial run of our performance, but to present North Texas with the same music as we’ll be playing at Carnegie, with only a few alternate performers,” Bradetich said. “We’ve done so much work planning and rehearsing the performance that it would be a shame if we could only share it once.”