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 April 17th, 2025 at 5pm on the CU Denver campus (Auraria Campus). It is a friendly competition that celebrates all of these wonderful, young musicians!

Here are the 2024 Finalists:

• Karissa Van Pelt - Fort Collins High School
• Celeste Pesce - ThunderRidge High School
• Anthony Ortiz Bonifacio - Early College Academy
• Asher Foster - Denver School of the Arts
• Mia Schmelmer - Broomfield High School
• Usha DeWilde - Valor Christian High School
• Ellemae Lopez - Homeschool

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?

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 place prize is a 3 hour recording session in the CU Denver Recording Studio from sound engineer Kevin Lee! Kevin is the CU Denver Recording Studio Manager and a sound engineer for artists such as Gregory Alan Isakov and Bill Frisell.

The second place prize is a one hour songwriting lesson from a CU Denver Singer/Songwriter faculty member!

The third place prize is a photography session of themselves or their band from MEIS Program Coordinator Kassandra Lopez! Kassandra is an experienced music photographer.

In addition, all of the finalists will also receive $500 scholarships to the 2025 LYNX Arts Camp Music Industry Program from June 15-27, 2025. Finalists wil also receive great constructive feedback about their songs and performances from our amazing judges.

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:

Dango Rose - Dango is a CU Denver Singer/Songwriter Faculty Member and a member of the sensational band Elephant Revival

Paul Musso - Paul is a CU Denver Guitar Performance Faculty Member and a professional jazz musican.

Kassandra Lopez -Kassandra is the Program Coordinator of the CU Denver Music & Entertainment Industry Studies (MEIS) Department. Kassandra is also a professional flute player.

Questions? 

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