Playing It Dangerously. Ian MacMillen

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I would like to thank the many people who assisted in the research and preparation of this book and without whose support it could not have come about. First, I am indebted to Suzanna Tamminen and the staff at Wesleyan University Press for their belief in and dedication to presenting this text in its best scholarly and material form. I am also grateful to the Music/Culture Series editors and to the two anonymous readers who provided insightful feedback on my monograph. In addition, I extend my thanks to Don Dyer, editor of Balkanistica, for permitting the reprinting of substantial portions of an article (MacMillen 2014) in this book’s introduction and chapter 1, and to him, the anonymous reviewers of that publication, and the editors of an earlier conference proceedings version (MacMillen 2011b) for their comments. I thank Jerry Grcevich as well for permission to publish the notated melody and arrangement of “Moja Juliška.”

      I received generous support for researching this book from the American Council of Learned Societies in the form of a dissertation research fellowship in East European studies. The University of Pennsylvania funded much of my doctoral research on this topic through Benjamin Franklin doctoral fellowships and summer travel research funding, and I am grateful as well for the scholarly support and guidance of my dissertation committee: Dr. Timothy Rommen, adviser; Dr. Carol Muller, reader; and Dr. Jane Sugarman of the City University of New York, reader. Liliana Milkova, Gavin Steingo, Anna Casas Aguilar, Alvaro Santana-Acuña, Svanibor Pettan, Denise Gill, Carol Silverman, Jakša Primorac, Stiliana Milkova, Naila Ceribašić, Alan Zemel, Anna Stirr, Katie Graber, Ana Hofman, Luis-Manuel Garcia, Matthew Sumera, Srđan Atanasovski, Ana Petrov, and Dragana Stojanović offered critical feedback and suggestions at various stages of this project’s completion. The University of Pittsburgh’s ACLS and Foreign Language and Area Studies scholarships assisted greatly in my study of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Bulgarian languages. I wish also to thank Pitt’s faculty and Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies for welcoming me as a research associate, as well as Zagreb’s Institut za Etnologiju i Folkloristiku for hosting me as a foreign researcher. The Association for Recorded Sound Collections funded additional research, and as a faculty member at Oberlin College & Conservatory I received three Powers Travel Grants that contributed to my ongoing fieldwork on Southeast European tambura music.

      I am particularly indebted to the multitude of tambura players and enthusiasts in Europe and North America who granted me time, insights, car rides, beds, and other forms of generosity. Too many to name here in entirety, they include Jerry Grcevich; Rankin’s Junior Tamburitzans and Tamburaški Zbor Svete Marije; Dave Urban; the Zoretich family; the Brooks/Mann family; the directors and members of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, especially Mrs. Susan Stafura; members of the Pennsylvania and Ohio bands Barabe (especially Dario Barišić), Gipsy Stringz (especially George Batyi), Šarena, Junaci (especially Justin Greenwald), Otrov (especially Peter Kosovec), Radost, Trubaduri, Sviraj (especially Danilo Yanich), Trzalica, and Zabava; Antun and Gordana; Darko, Vesna, and the other directors and leaders at STD “Pajo Kolarić”; Duško Topić and the members and other directors of HKUD “Osijek 1862”; Maestro Mirko Delibašić and the rest of Prosvjeta/Vučedolski Zvuci in Vukovar; Zvonko Bogdan; Zoran and Mira; Andrija Franić; Miroslav Škoro; Ljiljana and Antun (and family); Damir “Budo” Butković; the rest of the Caffe Bar Kaktus crew (Bernard, Mladen, and Bruno); tambura pedagogues Mihael Ferić, Jelena Kovačić, Franjo Batorek, Julije Njikoš, Marko Benić, and Mark Forry; members of the Croatian and Serbian bands Hrvatski Sokol (especially Filip Pešut), Berde Band, Biće Skoro Propast Sveta, Dule Bend, Garavuše, Graničari, Slavonske Lole, Slavonski Bećari, Šokci, Ravnica, Zora, and numerous others; and the members of Sto Tamburaša.

      Most of all, I give my thanks, love, and appreciation to my family for their support in this project. My parents, Barbara and Richard MacMillen, have been unwavering in their encouragement; it is to them that I owe my love for meanderings, serendipity, and the field (from the department to the bush). My wife, Liliana, has been a constant source of intellectual inspiration and challenge, of warmth and understanding, and of perspective. Our daughter, Malvina, has brought new energy and curiosity to our music making, travels, work, and intellectual endeavors. As companions, friends, dancers, and fellow thinkers and enthusiasts of Southeast European traditions, they have shared with me so many marvels in the world.