On April 13, Glee returns to FOX and actor Cory Monteith returns to the role of Finn Hudson, who will now play for the basketball team and continue singing with the New Directions glee club at McKinley High. In real life, Monteith is advocating that sort of mix by searching for the best song mash-up by a school music group.
"I sought an opportunity to get involved with something that is promoting the arts," Monteith tells PEOPLE about the singing contest, sponsored by Apple & Eve Fruitables and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. The school choir, group or club to submit the best and most creative combination of two or more songs will receive $10,000 to go toward their programs.
"It goes absolutely in line with the message that Glee is talking about, basically saying that the arts matter," Monteith says. "Funding for arts education in schools should not be sidelined, so that's how I got involved."
The issue strikes a chord with the Canadian-born Monteith because "I really wish I had the opportunity to be in a glee club when I was a kid," he says. "I would have loved to sing back then, in addition to playing the drums in my schools' band programs."
To encourage originality, Monteith won't even hint at what songs he thinks would work well together. "I'm excited to see how creative can get," he says. "That's what education is about. That's what Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' That's what I think the most important thing is." He adds that the mash-up from the show's "Vitamin D" episode "was probably one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've ever done."
Interested choruses from kindergarten through eighth grade are encouraged to submit a video entry, plus a 100-word essay about their school's music program funding needs, to Facebook.com/appleandeve by April 30.
Monteith says he's looking forward to helping judge the entries. But is he tough like Simon Cowell or empathetic like Paula Abdul? "I think I'm somewhere in between," he says. "I'm going to split the difference between them." -- Cynthia Wang
Tell us: What songs would work best in a mash-up and who on Glee would you want to perform it?
Kevin Clark
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