David Verbuč

David Verbuč (from Slovenia) received his master’s degree in ethnomusicology at UC Davis (with distinction), and his bachelor’s degree in music education from the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (under the supervision of Svanibor Pettan, professor of ethnomusicology).

Verbuč worked—and occasionally still does—as a music journalist for Slovenian papers Muska/Nova Muska, Mladina, Odzven, and as a music journalist, radio DJ and music director at a Slovenian independent and alternative radio station, Radio Študent, Ljubljana. He wrote over 250 musical transcriptions for several publications of Slovenian folk music and wrote a chapter on Slovenian folk music for a 4th-grade elementary school textbook. Between 2000 and 2008 he conducted field work research in Upper Savinja Valley, North Slovenia, where he also recorded over 100 singers and collected around 1300 folk songs.

Since 2008, Verbuč has been a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UC Davis. He is currently finishing his dissertation “’Living publicly:’ house shows, alternative music venues, and the struggle for place and space among the American DIY communities,” an ethnographic account of DIY music venues/places in the US in which he examines the interrelation between the issues of place and space, and the formation and maintenance of musical communities.