High school students have until Oct. 18 to submit their applications to The Music Center’s Spotlight arts competition, a free, nationally acclaimed arts training and scholarship program for Southern California teens.

The program awards more than $100,000 in scholarships each year and provides artistic development through arts experiences, auditions, feedback and mastery classes taught by professional artists and arts administrators.

Recipients of the program can also claim their fair share of bragging rights, as the rigorous competition features notable alum such as multi-platinum award-winning Josh Groban, “American Idol”-famous Adam Lambert, Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers, Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez and dozens more.

The program is free to enter and open to artists of any skill level studying acting, ballet, classical instrument, classical voice, dance, jazz instrumental and non-classical voice.

Last year, nearly 1,500 students from more than 275 schools applied to the competition. Los Alamitos High School senior Santiago Lopez was one of the 14 grand prize finalists who won last year and took home $5,000 in scholarship prizes.

The first part of the application requires students to submit a video audition online. Applicants will receive written feedback from a professional and a distinguished panel of judges as well as a certificate of achievement.

Those who move on from the first round will be invited to perform live in front of a panel of judges and receive feedback from a panel of industry experts. Spotlight does require that those students be vaccinated in order to attend the in-person audition.

Then, 16 semifinalists from each category will participate in a mastery class to prepare and hear feedback for their semifinal audition, after which two grand prize finalists and an honorable mention in each category will be named.

The competition concludes with a grand finale performance on June 15, 2022, at the Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre where winners will showcase their own individual talents during the show which  culminates in a song-and-dance performance with all of the finalists.

Click here for more information and how to enter.