LEWISTON, Maine -- Internationally acclaimed artists highlight the 2000-01 Bates College Concert Series will present a six-concert program of classical, jazz and world music, beginning with jazz violinist Regina Carter at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, in the Bates College Chapel. Tickets for the Carter concert are $5 for Bates students and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6252.

Other series concerts are Peter Surasena and the Kandyan Dancers at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25 in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall; the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall; the Musicians from Marlboro at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall; jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris and pianist Jackie Terrason at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, in the Lewiston Middle School Auditorium; and the Skampa Quartet at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall.

Touted by The New York Times as a "violinist of great control, improvisational flexibility and wide range," Regina Carter is one of the most significant, versatile and innovative violinists to emerge on the jazz scene in decades. A consummate artist and virtuoso, Carter collaborated with artists as diverse as Wynton Marsalis, Lauryn Hill, Cassandra Wilson, Oliver Lake, Max Roach, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Steve Turre, Billy Joel and Dolly Parton. The Washington Times described her violin as "laughing, crying and screaming."

Carter has won acclaim for her solos on Marsalis' "Blood on the Fields" tour and Wilson's recent "Travelin' Miles" concert at New York's Lincoln Center. Her contribution to the "Miles" concert prompted The New York Times to call Carter "enormously gifted, bringing a blues sensibility to her improvisations."

A Detroit native, Carter joins her hometown's long line of famed musicians. A Suzuki alumna, she honed her skills as a member of the Detroit Civic Symphony Orchestra and on the bandstand under the tutelage of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and organist Lymon Woodard. She also performed with the pop/funk band Brainstorm and the celebrated all-female Detroit collaborative Straight Ahead.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and Oakland University, Carter relocated to New York in the early 1990s, where she quickly became a vital member of the music scene, collaborating with Oliver Lake, the String Trio of New York and others.

She recorded a 1995 self-titled CD for Atlantic Records and in 1997's "Something for Grace," named for her mother, helped secure her first place in the violin category in Down Beat magazine's 46th Annual Critics Poll. Carter's Verve Record debut, "Rhythms of the Heart" (1999), integrates jazz, funk, African, Brazilian and soul music with an adventurous rhythmic sensibility.