BellaMafia, one of Bowdoin’s two all-female a cappella ensembles, will take a break this semester to reevaluate its future as a group on campus, a situation President of the A Cappella Council Max Middleton ’16 called unprecedented.
At the a cappella recruitment concert last weekend, in which Bowdoin’s remaining five a cappella groups performed, Middleton announced that BellaMafia would not be holding auditions for new members this semester.
BellaMafia informed Middleton of its decision to take time off earlier that week.
Members of BellaMafia declined to comment to the Orient.
According to Middleton, the group reached the decision because several members graduated this past spring and other members on campus are unable to commit to the group for personal reasons.
“The leadership of the group just felt like it would be better… as a group if [they]took a semester to regroup, rethink, reorganize and then come back,” Middleton said.
For the A Cappella Council, the situation is uncharted territory.
“As far as I know, in my tenure...there’s not really precedent for a whole group taking time off,” Middleton said. “That said, there definitely is precedent of individuals taking time off within groups.”
BellaMafia formed as a group in 2006 after more female students began expressing interest to join an a cappella group.
Currently, Middleton cannot predict how BellaMafia not auditioning new members will impact the audition numbers for Bowdoin’s other female a cappella group, Miscellania, and two co-ed groups, BOKA and Ursus Verses. So far, the groups have not seen major changes, as students can audition for multiple groups.
“Our policy has been in the past, for a student body of this size, the fact that we’re able to support six a cappella groups is remarkable,” Middleton said. “You look at other schools...it’s an insane a cappella group to student ratio that we’ve got working here.”