Regina Carter’s style is marked by eclectic virtuosity, with stunning fusions of classical and modern music. Cook’s style is daring with touches of R&B, Motown, blues and gospel. Carter, a Detroit native, studied at the Center for Creative Studies and the New England Conservatory of Music before returning home to complete her studies with Oakland University’s highly regarded Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. Influenced by Detroit jazz musicians such as Marcus Belgrave, Lyman Woodard and Norma Jean Bell, as well as the “viscount of the jazz violin” Frenchman Stefan Grapelli, Carter has been a veritable crescendo of success.
Last year, she received a Distinguished Alumni Achievement award from Oakland University, and was named an artist-in-residence with OU’s College of Arts and Sciences. She earned the acclaimed John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, received the International Achievement Award from Art Serve Michigan, and was selected as “Best Violinist” in the Jazz 2001 Readers’ Poll. Carter’s most recent work I'll Be Seeing You, is dedicated to her mother who passed away in 2005.Carter’s other five solo CDs include a tribute to Detroit called Motor City Moments, and Paganini: After a Dream, which features Carter playing the famed Il Cannone, a 250-year-old violin owned by Paganini.