Dan Campagna is a UMB Master’s Program graduate, former sports information director for the Athletic Department and current assistant coach of the women’s soccer team. He is also the business manager and member of Fermata Town, an a cappella group that is quickly gaining popularity in Boston. Campagna notes, “Within the past few years the a cappella scene in the Boston area has taken off, making performances and venues easier to come by.”
Campagna has been in singing groups since his teens. This is the fourth singing group he has been a part of, and the second group he has helped to found. As a bass, baritone, tenor and vocal percussionist, he sang with college groups during his undergraduate tenure at Emmanuel College. There, he formed the Testostertones, an all-male group. When the group eventually folded, Campagna and another of its past members decided they wanted to continue doing a cappella, but this time experiment with a more serious, coed group. Says Campagna, “My good friend and I wanted to take it a step further by forming a coed a cappella group. So through advertisements, word of mouth and an ad on Craigslist for female singers, we held open auditions and it surprisingly all worked out.”
Fermata Town, formed in 2009, now consists of 13 members: six women and seven men, graduates of Boston University, Emmanuel College, Brandeis University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Along with Campagna, all the members hold steady full time jobs. Fermata Town is a passion and activity they make time for outside their occupations.
They began performing two years ago, and soon decided they wanted to become more serious about their passion. “We perform [songs] from all genres and are constantly trying new songs and styles, but our main influence is pop and jazz,” says Campagna. On their Wikipella space, they describe themselves as bringing an “energetic and fresh sound to the stage with every performance.” The group’s name is a musical pun on the term ‘fermata,’ which means a pause in the music to look at the conductor. “It is kind of a tradition of a cappella groups to name themselves after a musical pun,” Campagna explains.
While most of their performances are on college campuses, some of their past events include Boston University’s BosTones Halloween Event and Emmanuel College’s Alumni Weekend, as well as multiple live performances on Newbury Street. Recently, the members decided they wanted to take Fermata Town to the next level. “We all decided we wanted to try and put ourselves out there more and start to possibly make some money. I became the Business or PR guy, and have been looking for venues and performance opportunities ever since,” reports Campagna.
Fermata Town went on their first tour this summer along Cape Cod, and entered in multiple a cappella contests throughout the Boston area. “We seem to always do well because the winners are voted by the crowd and we have a very solid fan base.” Both past members and close friends have been supporting and following Fermata Town to their events since the beginning.
When asked about Fermata Town’s plans for the future, Campagna replied, “Well, hopefully more performing opportunities, but since we all have jobs, we realize that a national tour is not really plausible. But the ultimate goal would be to produce a CD and have enough of a following to make money off of it.”
In July, Fermata Town won an a cappella open mic night at Lansdowne Pub; the prize was a night of performance at Bill’s Bar. That event is happening Dec. 8, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., with all the proceeds from the door given to Fermata Town. For more information you can check out their Wikipella page www.wikipella.org/wiki/Fermata_Town or their Facebook page www.facebook.com/fermata.town.
