The lights dimmed in the media center, and everyone became quiet as sophomore Omar Rios sat down with his guitar at the Amnesty International Coffee House performance. All eyes were on him as he began to play guitar and sing his rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Kiss Me.

Rios started taking guitar lessons at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School at age 5, after receiving his first guitar.

“My uncles from Ecuador sent this really big box to my house with a guitar for me. I didn’t ask for it or anything. They just all chipped in money and bought me a guitar, so I asked my mom if I could take lessons,” Rios said. “I thought it was really cool. It was all black with white outlines.”

Two years into playing the guitar, Rios learned how to play the piano, and then at age 8 started singing lessons. Soon enough, he became hooked on performing for others.

“I played guitar and sang at La Salette Shrine, a very large church, in front of over a thousand people,” Rios said. “That was really intense. I don’t remember what I performed; I just remember I was really nervous. That’s what got rid of my stage fright, which used to be really bad.”

Rios is involved in music at the high school by being a part of the honors concert choir and performing in the WHS production of “Beauty and the Beast.” He also took guitar and piano classes freshman year.

“I want to major in some type of music. When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a rock star,” Rios said. “That was my dream. Now I just want to spend the rest of my life playing music, singing, playing guitar, piano, whatever I can do.”

Rios’s inspirations range from his father, who was a singer and would sing songs to him as a child, to Jason Mraz.

“All of Mraz’s lyrics are very true and real, he writes all of his own music,” Rios said.

Though also inspired by figures such as The Beatles and Ed Sheeran, Rios’s greatest musical moment comes from guitarist Tony Melendez.

“He is an incredible guitar player, but he has no arms,” Rios said. Rios met Melendez at La Salette Shrine when Rios was 11. “He played guitar with his feet, and it was the most incredible playing I’ve ever heard. The things people do and go to the trouble of doing just to play music is awesome.”

Rios’s favorite part of being a musician is using it as a form of expression, sometimes writing his own songs as an outlet.

“To be able to express myself through music, whatever I’m feeling or not feeling, is amazing,” Rios said. “I’ll hear a song on the radio and think, ‘oh that sounds really good; I want to imitate that or do something with it.’ That’s the best part of playing guitar or singing or playing piano or doing music in general. It’s taking something and making it your own or starting with something from scratch and completely making it your own and just having fun with it.”