Daniel Ferguson is an ethnomusicologist and former assistant professor of music at Columbia University. He has
taught at UCLA, UC Davis, and San Francisco State University and is currently an adjunct instructor at Utah Valley
University. He received an M.A. from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral
fellow in the Center for Chinese Studies at UC Berkeley. Areas of specialization include music of China, popular
musics of the Americas (the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil),and music of Scottish America.
 
An extensive researcher, Daniel has conducted fieldwork in China (Tianjin, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taiwan),
and among the Chinese diasporic communities of New York City and San Francisco. His Ph.D. dissertation was a
detailed ethnography of Cantonese Opera in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Additional research includes
music in the context of Scottish-American cultural events throughout the eastern United States. Sources for research
funding include the Fulbright-Hays Foundation, the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's
Republic of China, and the Columbia University Council on Research and Faculty Development in the Humanities
and Social Sciences. Daniel's publications have appeared in Yearbook for Traditional Music, Garland Encyclopedia of
World Music, Asian Music, and CHIME.

Daniel has resided in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Colombia and is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.
He has studied several traditional instruments including the Chinese pipa, qin, zheng, sanxian, and di; Turkish
tanbur; Indian sitar; Zimbabwean mbira; Irish sean-nos singing; Irish tenor banjo; Scottish highland bagpipes; and
Javanese gamelan. Daniel is also a very active professional performing and touring guitarist.