Eight famous amateurs with a passion for classical music will do battle this summer for the chance to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra in front of a live audience of 30,000 in BBC Two’s Maestro.

The show sees a diverse range of personalities – including hiphop star Goldie, Blur bassist Alex James and actress Jane Asher – competing to perform at BBC Proms In The Park, held in London’s Hyde Park, as part of the BBC Proms’ world-famous Last Night celebrations on 13 September 2008.

Others striving to command the respect of one of the country’s leading orchestras include newsreader Katie Derham, broadcaster Peter Snow, actor David Soul, comedian Sue Perkins and actor and comedian Bradley Walsh.

The eight students face a gruelling summer as they attempt to prove that they are worthy of taking to the stage in front of tens of thousands of people.

In the first stage of preparation the celebrity students will enter into a week-long Baton Camp in the final week of May, where they will each be assigned their own mentor.

Each mentor – all of whom are established professional conductors – will work intensively with their student in helping them to master the disciplines of orchestral, choral and operatic music.

Rehearsals will continue throughout the summer as the celebrity students learn how to inspire and engage with the orchestra and the music.

Grasping the baton, the students will then take to the conductor’s podium in August, where, in front of a studio audience and an international judging panel made up of leading musicians, they will conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra in a weekly show broadcast on BBC Two.

Maestro will be presented by Clive Anderson.

The panel is led by Sir Roger Norrington – who will be conducting the Last Night Of The BBC Proms 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall – and also includes composer and cellist Zoë Martlew, conductor Simone Young and double bassist Dominic Seldis.

At the end of each show the judging panel and members of the BBC Concert Orchestra will decide which student will be voted off.

Under constant scrutiny, from both the judges and the orchestra they are conducting, the students will have to show beyond any doubt that they have the talent, passion and nerves of steel necessary to conduct a full orchestra as part of one of the most famous events in the classical music calendar: BBC Proms In The Park, part of the Last Night Of The Proms.

Peter Maniura, Head of BBC Classical Music Television, says: “Maestro will take the audience on a fascinating, surprising, thrilling and informative journey into the heart of music-making. It will delve into the practicalities, magic and mystery of what a conductor actually does to make great music happen.”