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60 seconds with … Craig De Wilde

9 July 2008

Associate Professor Craig De Wilde

Name: Craig De Wilde
Org. Unit: School of Music -- Conservatorium, Faculty of Arts
Title: Associate Professor and Head, School of Music -- Conservatorium and Associate Dean Education, Faculty of Arts

How long have you been with Monash University?

I started officially at Monash on New Year's Day, 1992

Prior to working at Monash, where were you located and what was your role?

I came from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I taught music history to over 1500 students a year. Before that, I taught for the City Colleges of Chicago and the University of Maryland at their international campuses in Munich, Germany.

What challenges are ahead in your current role?

I have only just started my role as one of the two Associate Deans, Education, in the Faculty of Arts, so the learning curve is nearly vertical at present. Fortunately I have some supremely competent and patient staff members working with me to keep me out of trouble. As Head of Music, my greatest challenge is always keeping a balance between all the many activities taking place in the school, as well as with my own teaching and research activities. I have become particularly interested in recent years in how the business of music influences artistic decisions, both for the better and for the worse.

What is it about your job that holds your interest or is particularly satisfying?

Working with incredibly talented and dynamic people, both students and colleagues, is very inspiring. I also have a one-hour weekly radio program on Thursday evenings with Derek Guille on ABC 774, where I can share my enthusiasm for music with those outside Monash as well.

What is your favourite place in the world and why?

This is an impossible question for me to answer definitively, as I have been fortunate to have travelled fairly widely in my life, and every place I've been has had something very special to offer. Two particularly memorable occasions include visiting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and being weak at the knees while thinking about all the incredible music history that has originated from those two locations. Also, being on a cruise ship on the Rhine River between Koblenz and Bingen in Germany, watching the castles slowly pass by while enjoying an excellent bottle of reisling, is hard to beat.

What is the best piece of advice you have received?

Learn when to keep your mouth shut and your ears open. You'd think being a musician that skill would come naturally to me, but regrettably that was not always the case.

What is something about yourself that most of your colleagues wouldn't know?

I'm a bit of a petrol head, with a particular love for classic cars. I own a Jaguar saloon which I show occasionally in various motorcar events. In addition, this past January I lived out a long-held dream by driving an Indy-style, open-wheeled racecar at speed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. My fast lap averaged 247.28 kilometres per hour.