Cleveland Heights - University Heights City School District

The sky above Cleveland Heights High School must have been extremely bright Friday, January 27^th as the stars were shining at the Fairfax Cabaret. Under the direction of Mrs. Tamar Gray, Fairfax Elementary School’s esteemed music teacher, and a group of dedicated and enthusiastic parent volunteers, this biennial event was a positive gathering of members of our learning community and a fine display of the impressive talents of the student participants for the sake of raising funds for Fairfax Elementary School.  The Masters of Ceremonies were Principal Michael Wasser and Parent Lisa Hunt.  The performers did a terrific job of entertaining the audience with acts that were prepared and rehearsed with great effort.  In addition to the show, there were a plethora of raffle items that were donated by parents, staff members and community businesses.  The Cabaret Committee included Susan Fleischer, Julie Walker, Kate Snow, Pam Kelly, Jennie Thomas, Courtney Walker, Aphrodite Papadakis, Marilyn Hershman, Cynthia Lowe, Rachel Bernstein, Dallas Schubert, Leslie Kaplansky, Amy Rosenbluth, Valery Shelt, Malia Lewis, Tamar Gray and Lisa Hunt, all of whom put great effort into making this event a success.

There were family acts; The Creek Walkers with kindergartener, Sophie Muller playing the violin with her parents, The Schubert family singers with students, Lila and Sara and alumnae Emma with their parents, and the Kelly/Tyler family trio performed Minuet in G with Nathaniel playing the cello alongside his parents.  There were two side-splitting comedy acts; best friends Katerina Alden and Christian Smith shared some great jokes and fifth grader, Adrian Passov, performed his first public stand-up routine with great success.  Megan Tyson shared an inspiration and beautiful praise dance and Lily Waugh impressively performed Bach’s Invention #8 on the piano.  Sylvia Snow-Rackley courageously shared her poem “The Invitation.”  Siblings Caroline and Spenser Imka sang the ever-popular “Rainbow Connection.”     The audience was introduced to the Ocarina instrument as it was played by Jackson Herschman.   Three acts that raised the level of energy in the auditorium were Emma Hodges and Alicia Criado’s dance to Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Hayley Sim’s gregarious rap performance entitled “Be Thankful,” and The Fairfax Tumbling Team whose members include Emma Hodges, Emma Hubbard, Cameron Huie, Rachel Lowe, Lila Schubert, Michael Stover, LaNya Thomas, Beth Trammer, and Sequoyah Turner.  Judea Lowe performed a dance to “Call of the Tribes.”   When a member of a vocal duet was absent, Mrs. Gray acted as a replacement singing “Child of Peace” with Binah Israel.  Nathaniel Mooney sang “Fly Like An Eagle” during his act and Madalyn Shelt and her friend, Abra Lisowski, performed vocally and on the piano to “Kids.”  Endia Martin and Camay McCollum brighten the room when they sang “Make It Shine.”  Another duet that entertained the crowd was Kayleigh Mooney and Emma Hubbard singing “Leave It All to Shine.”  Squad Beauty with Diamond Booker, Cymone Kimbrough, and Destinee McElroy and Fly Girls with Yasminah Ali, Yasriyah Ali, Taylor Averytt, Airianna Davis-Stinson, Italie Demore, Diamond Ivey, Emani Martin, and La’Nay Woodson danced to upbeat music.  The finale was a dance performed by members of the Fairfax Staff. 

          This event inspired our community to come together to celebrate and support the students of our school.  Tiger pride was evident at the Fairfax Cabaret.

-Respectfully written by Kristi Glasier