By KAILEEN GRUBER
The Ramspondents
The annual Sonic Spotlight event is back, and eight semifinalists have been selected. Sonic Spotlight is a music showcase featuring artists under the age of 22 who live in Larimer and Weld counties.
Sonic Spotlight is put on by the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 105.5 The Colorado Sound and the Bohemian Foundation.
The rules are simple: there are eight semi finalists who are selected by industry professionals. All eight artists that are selected record one song at the Blasting Room studios. From there, all of their songs will be played on 105.5 The Colorado Sound on Jan. 28. Three finalists will be selected, and they will each receive a fully produced music video and clinch a spot to play in the final round at The Armory on March. 24.
2026 Sonic Spotlight semi finalists:
Lilly Mae
Arkwave
Third Turn
Brendan Nichols
Heliotrope
Choam Nomsky
Kiss $tallion
PROSPECT
The winner from the three finalists will be given a $500 gift card to Music-Go-Round, a professional artist photoshoot and custom-printed T-shirts in addition to their song from the Blasting Room studios and music video.
CSU cello student Lilly “Mae” Rogers was selected as one of the semi finalists for this year. Rogers grew up in Colorado Springs where she began playing cello in fourth grade. She then purchased her own guitar and began teaching herself when she was 15.
“Ive always been writing music, even when I was little,” Rogers said, “when I was a kid I would scribble on a piece of paper and sing it to my parents”.
She realized she wanted to do music full time in her senior year of high school. She came to CSU as a business major, then promptly switched to a cello performance major.
“My favorite thing to do is write and play guitar and sing. But I also like improv cello,” Rogers said.
Rogers masterfully combines the tone of an acoustic guitar with her cello to create and record songs unique to her instrumental specialties. She has released three songs so far, however with Sonic Spotlight, she will get an additional recorded and mastered song from Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Berlin at the Blasting Room.
“Im excited about being able to record in a professional studio because I do all my own recordings,” Rogers said, “I took a class on how to use all the DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) but being able to see a professional do it is just going to be so insane.”
For more information on Sonic Spotlight, click here.
Kaileen Gruber is majoring in Journalism and Media Communication as well as minoring in Music Business at CSU. She is the vice president of the Music Business Collective.