Distinguished by an eclecticism that encompasses free improvisation, Duke Ellington classics and sacred music, Boston’s Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues the 2004-05 Bates College Concert Series at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, in the Olin Arts Center, at 75 Russell St.

Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and non-Bates students with ID. For additional information about the series and Olin Concert Hall, please see the Web site http://abacus.bates.edu/concerts/. For reservations, please call 207-786-6135.

Hailed by JazzTimes as “a bracing walk on the wild side of the big band spectrum,” Aardvark is known for a stylistic grasp that reaches from Ellington to the avant-garde, along the way referencing Frank Zappa, Charles Ives, sacred music and rock.

The orchestra is led by Mark Harvey, a trumpeter and composer whose original music includes the award-winning “Scamology” and the exploratory “Morph.” In all, Aardvark has premiered some 75 new works and released seven CDs — of which the latest, Duke Ellington/Sacred Music, was called “exhilarating” by the Allaboutjazz.com Web site. “Aardvark and Ellington are an ideal couple,” the Allaboutjazz critic said.

Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, Aardvark Jazz marks its 32nd season in 2004-05. The band has appeared at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival/New Jazz Series, and at colleges and universities including Princeton and Wesleyan. It presents an annual fall concert series and a Christmas concert in the Boston area.

The Bates concert series resumes at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, with classical pianist Awadagin Pratt. Raised in the Illinois town of Normal, the prodigiously talented Pratt is anything but. His adventurous interpretations of traditional repertoire, his technical and expressive command and the sheer breadth of his talent have captured the attention of critics and audiences worldwide. His Bates program will include Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

Pratt (whose first name is pronounced ow-ah-DAH-jin) is acclaimed for his musical insight and for intensely involving performances. He entered the University of Illinois at age 16 and subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, becoming that school’s first student to receive diplomas in three performance areas — piano, violin and conducting. (Today he is increasingly active as a conductor.)

Winner of the 1992 Naumburg International Piano Competition, Pratt has performed solo recitals and orchestral dates in Europe, Asia and across the United States. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and the Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and National symphonies, and performs duo recitals with cellist Zuill Bailey.

Pratt was named one of the 50 Leaders of Tomorrow in Ebony Magazine’s 50th anniversary issue and performed twice at the White House at the invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton. An Angel/EMI recording artist, he released his debut album, A Long Way From Normal, in 1994 and his most recent, an all-Bach disc with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, in 2002. In September 2004, Pratt starts work as an assistant professor of piano and artist in residence at the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.

Closing the Bates Concert Series at 8 p.m. Friday, March 11, is Quartetto di Venezia, acclaimed for a lively repertoire and a distinctively Italian playing style described by one reviewer as “fresh and brilliant.” Celebrating its 20th anniversary season in 2004-05, the ensemble will bring to Bates an all-Italian program featuring music by Verdi, Boccherini and others.

The quartet came together as students at a Venetian conservatory. Influenced by two quartets well-known in Europe, the Quartetto Italiano and the Vegh Quartet, the Quartetto di Venezia synthesized an interpretive approach characterized by an emphasis on the quality of sound and the individuality of each instrumental voice.

The repertoire of the Quartetto di Venezia ranges from classicists such as Beethoven, Mozart and Boccherini to modernists like Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Gian Francesco Malipiero. The members of the quartet are violinists Andrea Vio and Alberto Battiston, violist Luca Morassutti and cellist Angelo Zanin. The ensemble has performed throughout Italy and abroad, including the United States, Latin America, Japan and South Korea, and has recorded extensively.

Presenting artists from Boston, Beijing, Venice and Normal, Ill., the 2004-05 Bates College Concert Series brings a world’s worth of musical artistry to the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall this fall and winter. The series of four 8 p.m. concerts begins on Saturday, Oct. 2, with a concert of Chinese music by Chi Li, a virtuoso of the “erhu,” a two-stringed fiddle renowned for its haunting voicelike sound.

Concerts in the series will be held in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and non-Bates students with ID. For additional information about the series and Olin Concert Hall, please click here. For reservations, please call 207-786-6135.

Meanwhile, the musical offerings in Olin this weekend also include a visit by five players from Maine’s own Portland Chamber Music Festival. Featuring music by Dvorak, Martinu and PCMF cellist Thomas Kraines, the concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3. Admission is open to the public at no charge, thanks to support from the college’s Florence Pennell Gremley Fund.

Chi Li studied at the Conservatory of Chinese Music, Beijing, and was erhu soloist for the National Traditional Orchestra of China, the premiere ensemble of its kind. Now living in California, she is a leading performer on the ancient, deeply affecting erhu.

One of a family of instruments dating back more than 1,000 years, the erhu took its present form around 500 years ago. Thanks to the sound quality of the erhu’s small, drumlike resonator and a neck that permits an expressive style of fingering notes, a skilled player like Chi Li can obtain an unforgettable vocal quality from the erhu.

Her program at Bates will consist of music traditional and modern, including pieces by Hua Yanjun and Liu Tianhua, early 20th-century musicians who updated the erhu and established it as a solo concert instrument.

Chi Li has performed in New York, Washington, D.C., and other major U.S. cities. A member of the ethnomusicology faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles, she directs Chinese music ensembles at UCLA and in the San Francisco area, is adviser to the Los Angeles Chinese Music Ensemble and co-founded the American Chinese Performing Arts Institute.

The Bates College Concert Series follows Chi Li with an Oct. 16 performance by Boston’s Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, a band distinguished by an eclecticism encompassing free improvisation, Duke Ellington classics and sacred music. The series resumes on Jan. 29 with the highly accomplished classical pianist Awadagin Pratt and closes March 11 with the Quartetto di Venezia, an Italian string quartet celebrating its 20th anniversary season.

Founded in 1993 by violinist Jennifer Elowitch, of Portland, and pianist Dena Levine, of New York City, the Portland Chamber Music Festival presents lively programs that blend established and new repertoire.

Elowitch and Levine will take part in the Bates concert. The program includes Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, by Bohuslav Martinu; Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A major (Op. 81); and Three Pieces for Violin and Cello by PCMF cellist Thomas Kraines, who will introduce and perform in the piece. Violinist Juliette Kang and violist Carol Rodland complete the lineup of players.

Since its first season in 1994, PCMF has presented broadly acclaimed performers from the United States, Europe and Latin America, and now enjoys a strong community following and a growing national reputation. Its concerts are featured on Maine Public Radio’s “Mainestage” and on WGBH radio in Boston, and it has been featured on Maine Public Television and on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

Recognized for its strong commitment to new music, the festival’s resident composers have included Osvaldo Golijov and Elliott Schwartz.

Elowitch, PCMF executive director and co-artistic director with Levine, is the assistant principal second violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. She also performs with the Boston Symphony and Emmanuel Music, with whom she toured Europe. She is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.

Levine is assistant professor of piano at Seton Hall University. She has appeared at the Marlboro and Tanglewood festivals and in concerts in Europe and Asia. As a founding member of the Laurel Trio, she won the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the ProPiano Competition, and has recorded for CRI.

Kraines, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, is gaining recognition worldwide as a cellist and composer. Formerly a member of the Peabody Trio, he currently performs in a duo with his wife, violinist Juliette Kang. He is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music and Phillips Academy.

Gold medalist in the 1994 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Kang is assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony and previously worked with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Her solo engagements have included the San Francisco Symphony, l’Orchestre National de France and every major Canadian orchestra.

Violist Carol Rodland made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 17. Prior to joining the faculty at the New England Conservatory, she held professorships at the “Hanns Eisler” Musikhochschule in Berlin and at Arizona State University. She won first prizes at the Washington International Competition, the Artists International Auditions and the Juilliard Concerto Competition.