Professional Accomplishment
Nikola Buble (1950), a marine-engineer, conductor, church organ player and ethnomusicologist.
Studied in Split (Faculty of Maritime Studies and Teacher –Training College), Sarajevo (Academy of Music, Faculty of Arts), Zagreb (Academy of Music) and Ljubljana ( Faculty of Arts). He graduated in Split and Sarajevo, received a master's degree (M.A) in ethnomusicology in Zagreb and was granted a doctor's degree (Ph.D.) in Musicology in Ljubljana.
A choir director (regens chori) in the Benedictine monastery of St. Nicholas in Trogir. A renowned expert in liturgical and paraliturgical folk music. A reliable and skilled piano and organ solo-performers' accompanist. As a conductor he has peformed in Split, Zagreb, Šibenik, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Mainz, Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna, Bern..(over 300 performances). He has been most active as the choir director of the Music school «Josip Hatze» girls' choir in Split, and as a long-standing artistic director and conductor of the cult Klapa Trogir with whom he has peformed world-wide and has published over twenty recordings. He was the first conductor of the Orchestra of the Croatian navy in the independent Republic of Croatia, and was the artistic director of the Adriatic Folklore Festival, International Festival of Meditteranean Folklore, Festival of Dalmatian Klapa Songs and International Croatian Mandoline Festival. He is a member of the Croatian Folklore Association, Association of Croatian pedagogues, Croatian Musicologists' Association, Association of Croatian Composers and the International Council for Traditional Music.
Currently, an associate member of many international institutions (Queen's University in Belfast, Institute of Musicology in Sarajevo ..) and of many music and cultural magazines (La cultura nel mondo, Rivista Cistercensa, Abbazia di Casamari, Rive, Rivista di politica e cultura del Mediterraneo).Takes part in many national and international professional and artistic evaluation committees (World guitarist competition-Fernardo Sor at the Conservatorio di musica S. Cecilia in Rome,
Croatian National Cultural Assembly, Croatian Youth Music Festivities... ).Mainly gives lectures on Music Culture of South Croatia , both in Croatia and abroad (Austria, Switzerland...).
He has been a director and active member of many national and international artistic and scholary conferences (Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy..)
A composer of many vocal and instumental compositions which are based on the musical features of Dalmatian urban folklore; being performed and recorded in Croatia, Switzerland, Russia and Japan.
His published works include forty-six (46) books: nineteen (19) as author, fifteen (15) as editor and twelve (12) collected works as editor, melograph, author of music, harmonizer and artistic interpreter.
He is an author of ninety-five (95) professional and scientific articles and twenty-eight (28) recorded editions (gramophone LP's and CD's). In his scientific papers «he plunges into interpersonal relationships, social surroundings, and cultural circumstances and difficulties, thus setting the whole music culture into a diversive social context, and in doing so, expresses a differentiated need for ethno-sociological research of the phenomenon of music.» ( Esad Ćimić, Ph.D.,Prof.Emeritus, Croatia).
« He is distinguished for his research profoundness.» (Zoran Palčok, Institute of National Art, in Zagreb) and in his works « he has influenced the spreading of ethnomusicology in Croatia both thematically and conceptually» (Svanibor Pettan, Ph.D.,Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia).
«His work is distinguished by a marked authenticity as it is the fruit of a successful music theoretician/ scholar and practician artist/ pedagogue.» (Zlatko Miliša, Ph.D.,Professor,University of Zadar, Croatia).
« He has great experience, great knowledge – accompanied by an unusual scholarly creativity.» (Member of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Science,Jerko Bezić, Zagreb).
«Nikola Buble is a highly qualified expert who is not only a fruitful author but also an experienced producer....he can create and greatly contribute to the University of Split, to Croatia, as well as to the entire European ethnomusicology.» (Anthony Seeger, Ph.D, Professor, Department of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles /UCLA/;Director Emeritus, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Past Secretary General, International Council for Traditional Music /ICTM/; Former President, Society for Ethnomusicology SEM, a USA-based professional organization).
He is the initiator and director of -Music Culture of the People of South Croatia, a scientific project of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, Republic of Croatia.
He has been included in the Croatian Lexicon, Marquis's publication of Who's Who in the World; 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st.Century; Lexicon of Croatian Church Music; 6o years, Society of Croatian Composers; Who's Who in America.
For his exceptional merits in culture he received the order of « Danica Hrvatska s likom Marka Marulića» awarded to him by the President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, as well as being awarded the Republic of Croatia Charter for exceptional merits in promoting, preserving and developing the music culture of Croatian Klapa Songs, winner of the Certificate of Merit for establishing peace and friendship between two nations, Croatia and Japan; award winner of the Italian Medaglia della regione Lazio; winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award «for exceptional merit in developing social relations, promoting art, culture and science»;and repeatedly, a winner of the eminent recording award «Porin».
He had been appointed president of the Board of the National Council for Higher Education for the evaluation of higher-education music schools, whose member he still is; he was a member of the Senate and Board for the recognition of diplomas issued in foreign countries, University of Split; member of the Regional Council of Liberal Arts, Republic of Croatia; president of the Regional Council of Art, Republic of Croatia.
Nikola Buble, Ph.D. is a full professor at the Academy of Music, Split ( appointed the Dean for a number of years), a professor at the postgraduate study program Culture and Society, Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, Croatia; Department of Music, at the Faculty of Natural - Mathematical and Educational Sciences, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and postgraduate study program Department of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Academic Lectures - Ethnomusicology, Music of the world, Folk instruments, The theory of music, Conducting, Basics of vocal techniques