Providing 'Cultural Sustenance' at Duke
Aaron Greenwald plans and attends more than 50 performances each year
Name: Aaron Greenwald
Position: Executive Director of Duke Performances
Years at Duke: 9
What I do at Duke: I help organize Duke Performances - a series of concerts that brings 50 to 60 visiting performing artist groups to campus and to the community each year. We also host residencies for some of these artists and occasionally commission new works. We are willfully eclectic but increasingly selective in our effort to provide cultural sustenance in the form of performing arts to the campus and city and region. Part of my job is to attend most of these performances to see what they are like.
To start a conversation with me, ask about: Artists. I'm interested in having conversations with artists, and also the conversations that artists permit me to have with neighbors and friends.
My first paid job: I've only ever worked in the performing arts. My first job, before I went to college, was as a stage manager for a theater in San Francisco.
My dream job: To do what I am doing here at Duke with double the budget and double the staff.
The best advice I've received: A college professor counseled me to ask questions in public only if they will yield information useful to everyone in the room. I'm still trying to adhere to that advice.
A book I am reading: "Why Read Moby-Dick," by Nathaniel Philbrick. I'm working up my nerve to crack open Melville's Moby-Dick.
The music I listen to: I listen rather intensely to music that I might want to program. But I also listen to music with which I'm quitefamiliar music when I have other work to do. It could be anything from the fine indie rock musician Keren Ann to the Pacifica String Quartet playing Shostakovich's string quartets.
What I love about Duke: The access it affords to a remarkable collection of folks, from distinguished faculty to senior administrators to Durham natives to visiting musicians. Duke has remarkably approachable excellence.
A memorable moment at Duke: I met my wife, Angela, at Duke.
When I'm not at work I like to: Go to the movies. It is an opportunity to explore a different place. Take a movie like Badlands, a Terrence Malick film with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. It is a visually breathtaking moving that does what great art does - makes you see the world differently.
If I could have one superpower it would be: The ability to be invisible so I could eavesdrop on conversations. It might also be the only way I get to see a men's basketball game at Cameron.
Something unique in my office: When I organized a festival at Duke around the 90th birthday of jazz luminary Thelonious Monk, the North Coast Brewing Company in California sent us some bottles of Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale. I still have six bottles in my office.
Something most people don't know about me: I read the sports and arts section of the New York Times in the shower every morning. The key is to shower with your back to the shower head and fold the paper very efficiently.