Tower Belles, South’s highly-ranked all-female choir, has recently become an extracurricular instead of a class. Meeting every Tuesday, the choir prepares for the same concerts and performs at Fall Follies on Oct. 14 and 15.

In years past, Tower Belles was a class and this year it was moved to an extracurricular format due to declining choir enrollment numbers. According to Choir Director Vince Matia, this resulted in changes for the group.

“Because we only meet after school, we’re not doing as much musical literacy or testing,” Matia said. “It’s more about the performances–with that, there’s a different sense of scope. For this concert, we’re only doing one number.”

Tower Belles member and Serendipity Company Manager Victoria McCabe ’24 was involved with the group when it was offered as a class last year, and joined again this year. Though she enjoyed the class format, she prefers the extracurricular format because of the people it brings in.

“I do think this is better as a whole because it gives more opportunity (to build) a community,” McCabe said. “There are people from Pointe Singers, people from Serendipity, and anyone from South is welcome to join as well. I love the feeling of community that singing in a choir has, and all the people you can meet.”

Some of the new people in Tower Belles aren’t even in a choir class, like Aliana Ritter ’25. The extracurricular format gave her a chance to join a performing arts class without compromising time in her class schedule.

“It allows for more freedom and flexibility in your school day,” Ritter said. “I like to keep my school life academic, (but) I love the arts, so I was really excited to join the choir–but not as an actual class.”

According to Matia, Tower Belles is something to consider for those who enjoy performing. They’re still accepting new members and hope to gain enough to eventually return to a class format.

“I’d love (for) it to be a class,” Matia said. “If there were ever enough kids to do a class again, I’d love to do it.”

McCabe also hopes for more members and believes Tower Belles is a great way to meet people outside of school.

“I think singing–even if you don’t have the time in your schedule to make it a class–is such a fun thing to do with a group,” McCabe said.