Regina Carter has taken the violin from the orchestra to the center of the jazz world. In 2006 the MacArthur Foundation applauded performances that "highlight the often overlooked potential of the jazz violin for its lyric, melodic and percussive potential." Her musical journey has taken her to Genoa, Italy, where she became the first jazz musician and the first African American to play a violin owned by composer Niccolò Paganini. Carter, a native of Detroit, studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and graduated from Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.