Choir members performed at Faith Bellaire Lutheran Church on the nights of Nov. 6 and 7. Students served the 280-person audience dinner and dessert as they watched performances ranging from “Go the Distance” to “Chiquitita”.

The 40 performers had the opportunity to sing a solo or a duet, with the event lasting around two hours each night. Cabaret provides opportunities for group singing as well as solos, according to junior, secretary and tenor section leader Wesley George.

“Cabaret is a night that allows all choir [students] to grow their ability to be soloists,” George said. “It allows them to experiment with [soloing], and it's not too stressful, because everyone's doing it. I think it gives a lot of people a chance to come out of their shell and show off a little bit for some people.”

The event started with the entire choir singing “Willkommen” and ended with the performance of the “Thank You Song.” These songs make up the many traditions of Cabaret, an event that is celebrating its 20th year since Choir Director Amy Solberg started it at Bellaire.

“It's a little bit surreal to think that it's been going on that long,” Solberg said. “The main thing that hit me this year was that I just hope Cabaret is able to keep going. In the future, when I'm not here at Bellaire, I hope this event will continue. I just like the fact that people find it enjoyable, and the first time people attend, they always say, ‘I didn't realize it's going to be like this, such a big event.’”

“Willkommen,” “Suppertime” and the “Thank You Song” have been part of the Cabaret program since its first performance. “Willkommen” is from the musical Cabaret, which inspired Solberg to start Cabaret in the first place. “Suppertime” derives from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, a Broadway musical. However, the “Thank You Song” came from Solberg’s days in choir.

“I learned the “Thank You Song” in college when we would go on choir tour,” Solberg said. “When I was in college, we stayed in people's homes and we were fed at churches, so we were always going to sing the “Thank You Song”. I found a copy of it, and brought it down to Bellaire.”

Throughout the show, choir students played one of three roles. They either sang, became a waiter or waited upstairs to perform in the group songs. Roles usually differed from night to night, with some students, such as junior Kamea Ta, serving one night and singing during the other.

“For each day, each person was supposed to serve supper and dessert to all the guests each night,” Ta said. “Some students also went the extra mile to either perform on stage and sing a solo or duet, or serve the guests as waiters, serving drinks and making sure guests were enjoying their time.”

Soloists chose what song they wanted to perform, with the application process consisting of the choir members submitting a video of them singing for review by Solberg, and the official list coming out a few weeks later. According to George, most students are approved, which allows for students to have fun on stage.

“I think a lot of people approach [the solo] in different ways,” George said. “A lot of people had more funny songs, or more jazzy [songs]. Some people do a little dance. It's very fun. Like, the first song was Poker Face, and [the singer] was having a great time. It was very entertaining.”

Roles weren’t the only thing that changed from night to night—the MCs did too. In total, there were six MCs, one to represent each of the three main cabaret languages each night: French, German and English. Audience member and junior Evie Tan “appreciated” the MC’s effort.

“When you’re not in charge of the show but you're supposed to act like you’re in charge of the show is a lot of pressure,” Tan said. “They have to know all the acts, and help out a lot. Even though you’re not in charge of anything, your character is, and I think they did a good job of that.”

Along with it being the 20th anniversary, the cabaret also went through some changes. Instead of having it at the Willow Meadows Baptist Church like in past years, it took place at the Faith Bellaire Lutheran Church.

“The things we have to do [for Cabaret] requires being at a different location than the school,” Solberg said. “We have been fortunate to be at several churches throughout the community, and the church we've been at for the last 10 years just redid their gym floor. They don't allow anything but sports events now. So we did another hunt, and we found another church in Bellaire that was willing to host us.”

The new location for Cabaret presented challenges, however, as it prevented students from seeing the performances due to limited space. However, the choir members didn’t let that stop them from cheering on their classmates.

“We had less of a chance to watch other people’s performances, which was a little upsetting since we couldn’t support other choir members that way,” Ta said. “My favorite part of Cabaret was cheering on each soloist in the waiting area before they were sent down to be put in the queue to perform, since we wouldn’t be able to watch their performances on stage. I found it heartwarming how all the choir students supported each other without even knowing how well the soloists would do.”

Even though the venue changed, the food didn’t. The choir has catered from Charlie’s BBQ for the past couple of years. Along with the food, parent volunteers made up a big portion of the event.

“[The parent volunteers] pretty much do all of it,” Solberg said. “They do all the setup, all the decoration, all the buying of the equipment that we need to purchase. The only thing that I do is show up at night, assign people to the tables and facilitate tickets. Everything else is done by the parents, and our voice teacher does all the coachings.”

AP U.S. History and AP European History teacher Grace Srouji went to Cabaret on Nov. 7 with AP Psychology teacher Jenny Ho. Going to Cabaret is an annual tradition for the pair.

“We go to support the kids,” Srouji said. “I was very surprised to hear a bunch of students that were super talented that way. I had no idea they were in choir.”

On top of providing a fun experience for the audience, Cabaret functions as a way for the choir to raise money for things such as competitions, uniforms and trips. Typically, the choir raises around $3,000, but with the new venue, the profit is still unknown.

“I always find Cabaret to be a fun and creative way to build up choir funds,” Ta said. “The choir does not receive any funds from the school, and the cabaret helps us a lot.”

For many choir members, Cabaret provides a way to build a choir community and offers opportunities to connect with one another. According to Solberg, many students offered to become a waiter so they would have a chance to see their peers perform.

“The thing that was very moving this year was the amount of students volunteering,” Solberg said. “So many students wanted to be waiters this year that everyone could only be a waiter one night. I was really excited that they wanted to kind of serve in that way, and they wanted to watch their friends perform. They wanted to support their friends that way and also just greet the guests. That's just kind of cool.”

Overall, Cabaret provided a learning experience for aspiring soloists, something that George is "grateful" for.

“Through performing in these kinds of environments that [choir has] given me, I have learned a lot about overcoming performance anxiety [by] being able to continuously have an outlet to perform in a solo form,” George said. “That's important [because] it’s something that you don't typically see. Ms. Solberg doesn't have to provide it as a choir teacher, but giving students the opportunity to learn as solo singers is really cool and really important.”

Keep up with the Bellaire choir on Instagram @bellairehschoir and on their website bellairechoir.org.