While Congress was busy deciding that pizza is a vegetable, Tyler Hilton and friends played a benefit concert to raise money and awareness for the arts programs in New York City schools.

Lack of funds for arts programs is nothing new in the United States. VH1 has its Save the Music Foundation advocating for the survival of these programs, and the Rock the Schools concert followed in the same vein. Supported by the Bendi Trombley Foundation for the Performing Arts, this concert brought together five singer-songwriters to share their music and voice the importance of the music programs in schools.

Opening the show was Val Emmich and Dion Roy with their bands. Both kept in style with the acoustic theme of the night despite having a band to back them up. Emmich got the crowd excited with his songs “E.S.T.” and “Get On With It” while also bantering with the crowd. Roy performed his newest releases “Hey My Love” and “This Moment Is Mine” with the audience echoing the chorus. 

With only his guitar, Bryan Greenberg took the stage and performed “Waiting for Now” from his first album. He thanked everyone for being there and for supporting such a great cause, saying he first got into music when his neighbor forced him to join a punk rock band. Now music has become his way of expressing himself and identifying himself in a world of actors in Hollywood. 

Hosts Lauren Berger and Trey Morgan emphasized the importance of the arts.  Morgan highlighted the fact that music and the arts help students do better in math and science. By cutting the music and arts programs, the rest of the school curriculum is being cut also. 

Then Ryan Cabrera took the stage with back-up vocalist Adam Blain. Cabrera performed songs from his soon-to-be released album and well-known songs like “True” and “40 Kinds of Sadness.” At one point Adam left the stage to be replaced by Constantine Maroulis from Rock of Ages, who sang “Stand By Me” with Cabrera. Preparing the audience for his last song, Cabrera said it was a song about love, trust, and friendship. He wanted the audience to know it touched his heart and would possibly make him cry. Ready for a love song, the audience was surprised with Cabrera’s rendition of Stu’s tiger song from “The Hangover.”

After a night of seeing his friends on the stage, Tyler Hilton finally emerged to open an acoustic set with “How Love Should Be.”  Having learned that so many people were fans of One Tree Hill, he spoke about the fact that they just finished filming the final season, which made him nostalgic. Due to this nostalgia, he next sang John Waite’s “Missing You” that he did for an earlier season of One Tree Hill. With only him and his guitar, the song was beautiful and touching, causing the audience to hang onto every word he sang. 

Keeping in theme with his One Tree Hill nostalgia, he also performed “You’ll Ask For Me,” which has only appeared on a soundtrack for the show. Despite saying he would be releasing the song on an album in January, the audience sang along, surprising Hilton with their passion and volume.

He then called out Greenberg to perform a duet of Oasis’s “Wonderwall.” Fans were happy to see the two sing together, asking the two to stand closer together for pictures.  Closing with “Kiss On,” Hilton thanked everyone for coming out and showing how important music programs are in school. 

Even though there was not constant talk about supporting the arts and music departments, it came inherent in the concert.  While many fans were professing their love for One Tree Hill, it was clear that they loved the music their favorite characters sang.  The Rock the Schools concert emphasized the importance of a music education by featuring singer-songwriters passionate about their art stripped down to their acoustic sound.  Nothing could highlight the raw beauty and impact of music more.