Nine musicians bowed, plucked and — in one performance — donned a headdress with wolf ears, to show just what the double bass violin can do as a solo instrument.

Friday was the semifinal round of the inaugural International Double Bass Solo Competition — what enthusiasts have likened to “the Van Cliburn contest for the double bass” — and competitors showed the instrument can do more than the casual classical or jazz music listener could imagine.

In the Recital Hall at the University of North Texas College of Music, players burned through classical pieces usually heard on the violin, piano or cello. They plucked and knocked their way through compositions that mixed jazz and art music. One musician made the bass howl like a wolf.

The performer who wins the gold medal will leave the Murchison Performing Arts Center with $10,000 and a hefty new role.

“This is certainly the biggest prize we’ve seen in the bass competitions that are established,” said Jeff Bradetich, a UNT music professor and the musician behind the competition. “But there’s more to it than the money. The winner gets a CD recording, a New York debut at Carnegie Hall and about 38 concert dates in major symphony and concert houses across the country and overseas.”

DRC/David Minton

Maxwell Zeugner performs during the International Double Bass Solo Competition on Friday at the University of North Texas. The athletics of playing the bass brought sweat to more than one brow during semifinals of the prestigious competition.

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The winner will also be expected to be an ambassador for the double bass as a solo instrument.

The Bradetich Foundation, the principal sponsor and coordinator of the contest, is looking for bassists who can promote the instrument to the music community and to audiences. The foundation made the competition submission requirements stringent.

“We meant this contest to attract serious musicians. We didn’t want someone who had the attitude that they were just going to go play in this competition,” Bradetich said. “I’m pleased with what I’ve seen so far. We’ve attracted some of the best players in the world, from as far away as Singapore and St. Petersburg.”

Bradetich invited bassists Catalin Rotaru, Michael Wolf and DaXun Zhang to judge the competition. The musicians said they think the competition can bring more legitimacy to the bass as a solo instrument.

“If you look back at the cello, it was the bass instrument,” said Wolf, who is a professor of double bass at the Berlin University of the Arts. “But it wasn’t always the king of the bass section. It took [18th-century cellist and composer Luigi Rodolfo] Boccherini to show what it could do.

“It’s the same with the bass. How many instruments can fit so well into all these forms? Chamber music, orchestra, jazz? I’m even seeing the double bass playing with gamelan orchestras.”

Rotaru, who teaches double bass at the Arizona State University School of Music, said the competition will define “the all-around musician,” with the top honors given to gold, silver and bronze medalists.

“The instrument should have no more secrets for the musician — that’s essential,” he said. “You need to have the right attitude. Be the complete artist. To win this competition, you have to be technically able to perform, yes. But you also have to communicate the message of the music — which is emotion. It’s like communication, giving the message with words. But with music, it goes much deeper than that.”

Wolf said he doesn’t think the top bassists have to be musicologists, but they do have to be curious about the music.

“If you’re playing a variation of another piece of music, you should know the original. You should know what else the composer wrote. You should understand the history of the piece,” he said. “When you are among good musicians, they all think alike. They want to know as much as they can about the music.”

The competition began Thursday, with 20 musicians performing in the preliminary round. The four remaining finalists will perform Sunday at UNT.

Competitors have to handle the biggest instrument in the orchestra pit, with some strings thicker than a USB cable. At the bottom of its range, the double bass can voice notes than are easier to feel than hear.

Evan Premo, 24, of Amasa, Mich., called the contest “special.”

“What’s most special are the prizes. The prizes include career-helping opportunities,” he said. “You have a lot of performance opportunities, and there’s a generous prize.”

Premo was the second semifinalist to perform. He performed an arrangement that paired his own dance suites with Bach dance suites. He put on the wolf hat and a tail to perform “B.B. Wolf (An Apologia),” a funny and technically demanding work in which Premo performed as a wolf defending his nature. He made the bass howl, trot and mimic an airplane. He ended with Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Opus 38.

Premo said he’d like audiences to discover the bass as one of the most fluent solo instruments there is.

“I’d want them to know the versatility it has as a chamber instrument, and in jazz and folk music. The double bass is very natural in all those languages,” Premo said. 

The silver and bronze medalists will also leave the competition with recording plans, concerts and master classes around the U.S. The silver medalist will win a $5,000 cash prize, and the bronze medalist will win $2,500.

Bradetich said he’ll have won something, too.

“What this is saying about the double bass is two things. We are artists just like anyone else in this community,” he said. “Yes, the bass is a larger challenge — it’s a bigger instrument that is in some ways more difficult to play than the violin.

“The second thing it says is that because we don’t have this tradition that the other instruments have as a solo instrument, we’re making discoveries. The other instrumentalists know what their instruments can do. We’re finding out what we can do. And it’s exciting.”

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.

The finalists in the International Double Bass Solo Competition are:

• Artem Chirkov, 30, from St. Petersburg, Russia. He is principal bassist in the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Namgyun Kim, 26, from Daegu, Korea. He is studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Heinrich Braun. 

• Tian Yang Liu, 25, from Changsha, China. He is pursuing a graduate artist certificate at the University of North Texas with Jeff Bradetich.

• Rex Surany, 22, from New Jersey. He is studying at the Curtis Institute of Music with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer.

• Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Solo Competition: www.bradetichfoundation.org

• The BBC’s “One Minute World News” report on the competition, including audio recordings: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10280547.stm