Concert
Tonic
Sol-fa began at St. John’s University in Central Minnesota and includes
lead vocalist Shaun Johnson, tenor and vocal percussionist, Greg
Bannwarth, and bass, Jared
Dove. Together the group reached national prominence with appearances
on NBC’s Today Show and in Newsweek magazine. Along the way, they shared
the stage with a number of recognizable performers including Jay Leno,
Jeff Foxworthy and Lonestar, and were recently
part of Garrison Keillor’s 30th Anniversary celebration of A Prairie
Home Companion.
From
the group’s onset, the members have overseen and operated the business
of Tonic Sol-fa with a only a small team of driven supporters acting as
managers, lawyers, and
publicists, and increased revenue from a few thousand dollars in their
first year to a multi-million dollar limited liability company today.
The group overcame a number of obstacles, including an unspoken
apprehension to a cappella acts by individuals in the
music industry and having a name that was anything but catchy (a system
of naming the notes of the scale, usually do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti,
developed to teach singing). Still, the group persevered, recording and
manufacturing its own records and selling
them to a growing legion of fans via the Internet and social networking
sites, in the lobby of the theaters where they performed, and through a
growing national distribution. One could say they gained their current
consumer popularity the old fashioned way;
they earned it.