By Jennie Germain

Paramount Theatre Executive Director

The Austin Area Commission for the Arts (AACA) is re-inventing itself.

We are exploring opportunities to make Austin and the surrounding area a more vibrant and successful community through supporting and nourishing diverse arts, entertainment and cultural activities.

Our potentially groundbreaking work fits in perfectly with the performance happening at the Paramount Theatre this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Lauded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin,” Tracy Silverman has redefined string playing and influenced an entire generation of string players.

Wanting more from the instrument he was given, Silverman built one of the first-ever, six-string violins.

Simply adding the two additional lower strings transformed the traditional violin into a chordal instrument like the guitar.

As a result, Silverman became a musical pioneer by developing a brand new approach to string playing. Suddenly an instrument that had been tied with classical music now could produce numerous musical genres like rock, jazz and world music.

In learning about his work, I could correlate between what he did with the violin with what AACA is trying to do in Austin, which is transforming the AACA’s current work and expanding it, having an even greater impact on the next generation of our community.

For example, expanding the Paramount Theatre, which has been tied with the performing arts, could provide space for the visual arts to become part of our organization.

We could also look beyond the building to how we could help develop the downtown area into an arts and culture destination.

Our ideas are still in the planning stages and the many possibilities to plan and develop makes me excited for our future.