Fermata was founded in 2011 by Senior Lecturers Allan Badley and Davinia Caddy. As a series of public presentations open to all, Fermata exists to promote and extend discussion about music, its role and significance across history, its contemporary cultural currency, and its academic status within the University, the arts and humanities. Presentations take a number of forms – for example, interviews with special guests, round-table discussions, lecture-style talks and question-and-answer sessions – and seek to intertwine the various aspects of musical experience, from listening, performing and composing to thinking critically about questions of musical meaning.