''America's Hot Musician'' is an American

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

program which first aired on ''

Lifetime Real Women Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

'' in July 2008. The show is a reality talent competition which features strictly instrumental solo musicians of varying styles competing for a one year recording contract. In its first season the program featured

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930 by cellist Hans Kindler, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The NSO regularly ...

(United States) Principal Second Violinist Marissa Regni,

Talena Atfield Talena A. L. Atfield (born January 14, 1983) is a retired Canadian bass guitarist and Indigenous persons historian of the University of Waterloo, best known as a former member of the heavy metal group Kittie. Early life Atfield grew up in ...

formerly of the all-female Canadian heavy metal band

Kittie Kittie is a Canadian heavy metal music, heavy metal band from London, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 by guitarist Fallon Bowman and drummer Mercedes Lander, with guitarist and vocalist Morgan Lander and bassist Tanya Candler joining the ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trombonist The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the air column inside the instrument to ...

Gregory Charles Royal Gregory Charles Royal, also known as Chuck Royal, is an American musician, trombonist, composer, writer, co-founder of '' The BeBop Channel Corporation'', the former parent owner of JazzTimes. founder of the New York Jazz Film Festival, a form ...

as judges.

History

The program was created by

as Artistic Director of American Youth Symphony (AYS) in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. The idea developed during the organization's Plight of American Music Initiative Conference at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Washington, DC in February 2006.American Youth Symphony website {{cite web, url=http://www.americanyouthsymphony.org , title=Index , accessdate=2012-02-12 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163101/http://www.americanyouthsymphony.org/ , archivedate=2011-10-04 The conference, which was covered by

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

and Fox affiliate WTTG, featured a panel of industry representatives including Travis Bowerman from the

Washington Performing Arts Society Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A m ...

, Ashley Gauthier, a media attorney from '' U.S. News & World Report'', Malcolm Iniss from Radio One, AYS Executive Director Susan Veres and

. The panel discussed ways to engage youth culture in instrumental music performance and the current condition of live music attendance. America's Hot Musician was developed to purposely follow a popular television format to attract more mainstream viewers. The program began airing on

public, educational, and government access Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television special ...

(PEG) channels in various states in 2006 including Washington, DC, Madison, Wisconsin, Minneapolis and Boston before scheduling to air as a paid program on the

Oxygen Network Oxygen (branded on air as Oxygen True Crime) is an American cable and digital multicast television network owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group unit of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. The network primarily airs true crime television series ...

in July 2007. A subsequent legal battle ensued in federal court over the show's cancellationMTV.com
/ref> and the program aired primarily on the internet and regional broadcast channels

WRNN-TV WRNN-TV (channel 48) is a television station licensed to New Rochelle, New York, United States, serving the New York City area as an affiliate of Shop LC. It serves as the flagship station and namesake of Rye Brook–based WRNN-TV Associates; ...

in New York and

KDOC-TV KDOC-TV (channel 56) is a religious television station licensed to Anaheim, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station maintains studios on East F ...

in Los Angeles. The initial 2006 season which had been assembled with musicians from the internet with auditions in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Washington, DC incorporated the winners of that competition into a national version of the program in 2007, with a new crop musicians, which was to air on the Oxygen Network. The finals of the first season, a combination of 2006 and 2007 competitors, was taped at the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

in Washington, DC on June 13, 2008 and the organization negotiated to have the finals air on

on July 12 and July 20, 2008. Comedian Vic Christian and Clare Dagress were added as hosts. Guitarist Bobby McManus was voted the first season winner. The show released a first-season winner's recording with Canadian Idol finalist

Sarah Loverock The fourth season of ''Canadian Idol'' began in February 2006 ran until September 2006. Zack Werner, Jake Gold, Sass Jordan, and Farley Flex returned to judge, and Ben Mulroney returned to host, with Elena Juatco as the new roving reporter. The s ...

in October 2009. The release entitled "The Dreamer", which was written by judge

, was certified Gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association

CRIA A ''cria'' (pronounced ) is a juvenile llama, alpaca, vicuña, or guanaco. Etymology The term comes from the Spanish word , meaning "baby". Its false cognate in English, ''crya'' (pronounced ), was coined by British sailors who explored Chil ...

on November 4, 2009. ''America's Hot Musician'' aired on Lifetime Real Women in July 2008 3with Royal, National Symphony Orchestra Principal Second Violinist, Marissa Regni and nu-metal bassist Talena Atfield as judges, hosted by comedian Vic Christian.

References

2008 American television series debuts 2009 American television series endings 2000s American reality television series