Songwriting Competition 

The Colorado High School Music Competitions returns for 2023! The competition is accepting video submissions through February 5th (we extended it a couple days!). Finalists will be  selected from the video submissions and will been invited to the final live competition on Friday March 10th at 3:30pm at the King Center Recital Hall on the Auraria Campus. Family, friends, and visitors are welcome to attend this event for free. Please see additional competition details below.

Who is eligible?

All Colorado high school students

Why does CU Denver host the high school songwriting competition?

To celebrate the musical talent of all the high school musicians in Colorado and to provide a platform for these young artists to demonstrate their music. We hope that this competition will provide inspiration to young, contemporary musicians! The event will also help the CU Denver Music & Entertainment Industry Studies (MEIS) Department to identify and connect with potential future students.

How to apply?

Just create a music video of yourself or your band playing a song that you wrote. We do require a video and not just an audio file. It is important to our judges to actually see you playing the music. Please note that you don't need a nice video camera to record your video. Even a phone camera should work. We do encourage you to do your best to maximize sound quality but, again, we emphasize that expensive sound equipment isn't needed. The 2023 Submission Form will go live now!

Judging:

Once we have received all of video submissions by February 5th 2023, our judges will review the applicants and choose the finalists. All of the finalists will be invited to perform live at the King Center Recital Hall on the CU Denver campus on March 10th, 2023 at 3:30pm.

Questions? 
Just reach out to Dave Walter at david.walter@ucdenver.edu or 303-315-7487

Congratulations to the 2022 Colorado High School Music Competition Winners!

The musicians competed in-person on the Auraria Campus at the King Center Concert Hall on Friday March 11th, 2022. Prizes included Studio Time at Youth On Record, creative coaching from Owen Kortz, CU Denver Music & Entertainment Industry Studies (MEIS) merchandise, and scholarships to the  2022 LYNX Camp Music Industry Program


2022 Winners

1st Place - Robot Tennis Club
Laura Steadman (guitar/vocals)
Eli Schulz (bass)
Nina Dorighi (drums)

2nd Place - Levi Randolph

3rd Place - AugustX
Autumn Brassell (vocals)
Noah Sedarwall (piano/vocals)

2022 Judges
A huge thank you to our judges who are some of the top names in the Denver music industry: 

 

Alana Margolis (performing under Alana Mars) - CU Denver Music Business and Singer/Songwriter alumni. Alana has performed in the band Sister Neapolitan (at SXSW, the NAMM Showcase, and multiple SoFar Sounds concerts). Her debut single “Hold My Tongue” was recently released in January.

 

Katie Yeager - CU Denver Singer/Songwriter alumni. Katie is a pop/folk singer-songwriter and describes her music as “if George Harrison and Harry Styles met in a coffee shop on a road trip”. The first two singles from her debut EP, Adeline, are out now!

 

Finn O'Sullivan - Current CU Denver Singer/Songwriter student. Finn is "committed to creating things that other people can relate to". She released her first EP in 2020. Finn's song “When the Power Comes Back On” won the 2020 John Lennon Songwriting Contest "Song of the Year." This was an international competition with thousands of entries and judged by music industry stars.

Evan Reeves - CU Denver Singer/Songwriter Program Director. Evan is a songwriter, session musician, and record producer. Evan runs a recording/production/songwriting studio under the umbrella of What Are Records? (An indie record label) and United Interests (artist management).