2025 Colorado High School Songwriting Competition 

We are excited to receive many wonderful applications for the Colorado High School Songwriting Competition! Ten finalists will be selected and invited to the final live competition on March 14th, 2025 on the CU Denver campus (Auraria Campus). It is a friendly competition that celebrates all of these wonderful, young musicians!

Who is eligible?

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 2025 competition submission period is open, and the submission deadline is February 7th, 2025.

What are the prizes?

The first and second place performers prizes will be announced soon!

All of the finalists will also receive scholarships to the 2025 LYNX Arts Camp Music Industry Program from June 15-27, 2025. The scholarship amounts will vary from $100 to $800 depending on which place a student gets. More prizes will be announced soon!

Judging:

Once we have received all of video submissions, our judges will review the applicants and choose the finalists. All of the finalists are invited to perform live at the King Center Recital Hall on the CU Denver campus. All applicants will receive feedback about their music from the judges. 

All applicants and finalists will be judged on both their song (lyrics, musicianship, etc.) and how the song is performed.

2025 Judges

We are currently in the process of selecting our 2025 judges. In the meantime, please read about our 2024 judges below:

Evan Shelton - Evan is a CU Denver faculty member in the Music & Entertainment Industry Studies Department. He has years of experience writing and performing music.

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. Her newest EP, "Fine Things" is out now!

Verena Fuentes  - CU Denver Singer/Songwriter Alum. Verena is a pop/R&B singer/songwriter from Mexico City with the goal of sharing her experiences as a woman, POC, and human. She recently opened for DeVotchKa at the Bluebird Theater. Her newest single, “Si Me Debilito” is out now!

Katie Yeager - CU Denver Singer/Songwriter Alum. 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." Katie also writes about pop music scholarship and is a part of the trio Children of Divorce. Her new single "Black Cravat" is out now!

Questions? 

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

Congratulations to all of the past Colorado High School Music Competition Winners!

The musicians competed in-person on the Auraria Campus at the King Center Concert Hall on Friday March 8th, 2024. Prizes included the opportunity to open for a concert at Levitt Pavilion in Summer 2024. Additionally, the first place winner received a 3 hour recording studio session in the CU Denver recording studios with CU Denver Studio Manager Kevin Lee. All of the finalists also received scholarships to the 2024 LYNX Arts Camp Music Industry Program from June 16-28, 2024.

2024 Winners

1st - Elsa Vossler and the band Common Molly from Denver School of the Arts

2nd - Gabrielle Cohlmia from Valor Christian High School

3rd - Vivianna Bellance from Dawson School

2023 Winners

1st Place - Hadessah Haggard - "Something I Used to Believe"

2nd Place - Isabella Fabiani - "Perfect in My Eyes"

3rd Place - Eiley Connell - "How Come"

2022 Winners

1st Place - Robot Tennis Club - "305"

• Band Members: Laura Steadman - Guitar and Vocals; Eli Schulz - Bass; Nina Dorighi - Drums

2nd Place - Levi Randolph - "OST (Omicron Standard Time)"

3rd Place - AugustX - "Flurries"

• Band Members: August Brassell - Vocals; Noah Sedarwall - Piano and Vocals