HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Escala (formerly known as Scala) is an electronic
string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...
from London, England who rose to fame when they performed on and reached the final of the second series of '' Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV1 in May 2008.


Background

Two of the four members of Escala, Izzy Johnston and Chantal Leverton, were part of Wild, a similar five-piece classical group who were signed to EMI and released an album with the label in 2005. The four members of the group met in 2005 when they were part of the
string section The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...
on an arena tour with McFly. Three of them, Victoria Lyon, Chantal Leverton and Tasya Hodges, performed with Jeff Wayne on his ''War of the Worlds'' Tour in 2006.


''Britain's Got Talent''

In the first round of the show, Escala performed a "techno version" of '' Palladio'' by the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, and were put through to the semi-finals by judges
Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality and businessman. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK ...
, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. At the semi-final, they performed an instrumental version of " Live And Let Die" by
Paul McCartney and Wings Paul McCartney and Wings, often billed simply as Wings, was a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in 1971 in London by former The Beatles, Beatle Paul McCartney; his wife Linda McCartney on keyboards; session drummer Denny Seiwell; a ...
, receiving a positive reaction from the judges, with Piers Morgan describing it as "the best performance of the week". They won the public vote to win the semi-final and secure a place in the final with nine other acts. In the final, they once again performed "Palladio", but did not get enough public votes to make the top three acts and the show was won by street dancer George Sampson.


Controversy

The group was alleged to have been invited to audition for ''Britain's Got Talent'' by Simon Cowell after they supposedly played the ''
X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...
'' wrap party in late 2007. However, ITV refused claims that this was unfair, stating "Escala went through the same application and audition process as everyone else. ''Britain's Got Talent'' is open to any performer be it professional or amateur, with any talent." The members of Escala denied that they played at the ''X Factor'' wrap party, but on 18 November 2009 on ''This Morning'' with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby they admitted that they played at the wrap party that one of Escala's family members had arranged. They were told it could help their career.


Name change

The quartet changed their name from Scala to eScala during ''Britain's Got Talent'' after it was discovered that there was already a Belgian choir using the name Scala – Scala & Kolacny Brothers. They changed the name to eScala after EMI threatened to sue, despite having used the name Scala for two years. After the show they put a
lower case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...
'e' on the beginning to eScala but have since then reverted to Escala.


After ''Britain's Got Talent''

On 6 June 2008 Escala performed at the first night of the nationwide ''Britain's Got Talent tour'' in London and on 8 June it was revealed that they had signed a £1.5million contract deal with Sony BMG. In July 2008 they were signed to perform as part of a new promotional campaign for
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
coverage of the 2008–09 football season. The high-profile campaign began airing on 19 July with Escala performing "Palladio", was filmed at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London and featured them performing with clips from
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
matches. The promotion campaign was also used to promote other upcoming sports events on the channel. Escala performed at the 2008
FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is Football in England, English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA ...
on 11 August at Wembley Stadium, and accompanied Hayley Westenra when she sang the national anthem. On 20 September 2008, Escala performed at the Help for Heroes
rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
challenge match at
Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium (; usually known as Twickenham, and for sponsorship purposes known as the Allianz Stadium Twickenham) is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, London, England. It is owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the English rugby u ...
, London in aid of wounded British servicemen and women. On 11 May 2009, Escala made their American debut on '' The Oprah Winfrey Show'' as part of her World's Got Talent show with Simon Cowell. On 25 May 2009, Escala performed as guests, non-competitively, on the second semi-final of the third series of ''Britain's Got Talent''. They performed
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
's "Kashmir." Escala performed on BBC Radio 2's '' Friday Night is Music Night'' on 12 June 2009 and followed it up with a performance at
Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...
during a charity match between Middlesex and the Rajasthan Royals on 6 July 2009. On 1 August 2009, Escala played in concert with Anastacia at Osborne House on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
. On 1 November 2009, Escala performed "Palladio", "Children" and "Kashmir" at the Women of Rock event in London's
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
in aid of the Caron Keating Foundation. On 25 November 2009, Escala were guests on the afternoon live Alan Titchmarsh Show, on ITV. They were individually interviewed by the eponymous presenter and then performed the Karl Jenkins' composed track "Palladio", from their current CD. On 4 December 2009, Escala performed "Palladio" at the
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada. The quartet also features on " Louder than Words", from
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
's '' The Endless River'' (2014)


Debut album

Escala revealed their debut album, ''aree a They Escala'', to an audience of about 400 media at Whitehall Palace, London on 23 September 2008. Produced by Trevor Horn, it was set for release on 25 May 2009. On 29 October 2008 they performed the soundtrack for the premiere of the
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
film '' Quantum of Solace'' at the Odeon Leicester Square during the London Film Festival. In late March and April 2009, Escala began a regional promotional tour of the United Kingdom. In March 2009, it was also revealed that Escala were to collaborate with Slash on a cover of
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
's "
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
" for their album; previously, Bond had covered the song in a similar style for their '' Shine'' album. Other songs on the album included covers of Robert Miles's "
Children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...
" and Wings' " Live and Let Die". Escala also performed at the 250th anniversary of George Frideric Handel in front of Queen Elizabeth II on 5 June 2009 and were met by the Foundling choir and Thomas Coram Middle school Choir.


Members


Victoria Lyon

Lyon plays violin. She is the great-great-granddaughter of the Swedish
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
singer Jenny Lind, went to Wells Cathedral School and graduated from the Royal College of Music before joining the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra where she was the youngest member. She has toured with Simply Red, and performed with Jeff Wayne on his ''War of the Worlds'' Tour in 2006. She has also performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia.


Honor Watson

Watson enjoys performing internationally as a violinist of electric string quartet Escala, which she became a member of in January 2012. An experienced performer, Honor has also recorded, performed and toured with many artists. Most recently, Mark Ronson, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Michael Bublé, Jess Glynne, Ellie Goulding, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, Seal, Elbow, Bastille, Sam Smith, Tom Odell, Beverley Knight, Paloma Faith, Dermot Kennedy, Sarah Connor, Roger Sanchez, Jessie J, Diversity, Bryn Terfel, Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, James McCartney, Jason Donovan, Alexander Armstrong and Ronan Keating.


Helen Nash

Helen Nash plays the
cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
, comes from Cornwall, and studied cello at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She has appeared at Kensington Palace, The Royal Albert Hall, O2 arena, The Royal Variety Performance 2012 and 2013, and others.


Stephanie Benedetti

Benedetti plays the viola. She was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, to an Italian father and a Scottish mother. She started learning the viola at the age of eight. She played in the RaVen Quartet from 2007 to 2014. She has a younger sister named Nicola who is a violinist. She also toured with multiplatinum selling string quartet Bond as part of their Latin American tour leg in 2014 to cover Elspeth Hanson in viola, as well as Clean Bandit as violinist, starting in 2016.


Former members


Chantal Abel (née Leverton)

Abel played the viola. She was born in London and started to learn the violin when she was seven. After violin lessons at school, she studied at the Trinity College of Music in
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
for five years, where at the age of 13 years she won the " Henry Wood Prize for most promising string player". When she was 14, she played at Wigmore Hall, London in a masterclass with the Vienna Piano Trio. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. When she was 17, Abel switched from the violin to the viola following a recommendation from her music teacher. She then joined her music teacher at the Royal Academy of Music on Marylebone Road in London, where she won a scholarship. Before joining Escala, she was a member of Wild with Izzy Judd in 2005. She performed with Jeff Wayne on his ''War of the Worlds'' Tour in 2006 and has also performed solo viola at the launch of the new Baldessarini Boutique in
Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
where she was featured in the Middle East ''OK!'' magazine. She has also performed with Aled Jones and the boy band
Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
.


Izzy Judd (née Johnston)

Judd plays violin and comes from a family of professional musicians. Her parents run a music school in Hertfordshire and her three older brothers Rupert, Magnus and Guy were all musicians. She started playing the violin at the age of five and appeared in the musical '' Annie'' in a school production, playing the title role. She also played Fiddler in the musical '' Fiddler on the Roof''. As a dancer she attended the Royal Ballet Summer School at White Lodge, Richmond Park. She studied the violin at the junior department of the Royal College of Music in London, and then at Chetham's School of Music in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
where she won the Ida Caroll String Prize. She then gained a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music where she studied with Howard Davis. She also spent two summers studying at prestigious music schools in the United States. Judd was a member of Wild with Chantal Abel in 2005. She performed an arrangement of the Four Seasons at the 2005 Proms with her brother Magnus, at the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
. In 2007 she was a guest soloist with Michael Ball. In 2005, she played in the strings section backing band McFly and the following year began dating McFly drummer Harry Judd. They eventually married on 21 December 2012. On 27 December 2011, Escala announced on their homepage, that Judd had parted ways with the quartet, stating that she felt she could not commit to a relatively busy year. They held auditions for a new violinist in January. On 7 July 2012, Honor Watson was announced as her replacement. Since leaving Escala, Judd has been involved in charity work, mainly through th
Eyes Alight Appeal
which she and her family set up to raise funds for the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust. Her eldest brother Rupert suffered a serious brain injury in 1997 and his long rehabilitation process inspired them to set up the appeal to raise funds for long-term rehab programmes catering to brain injury patients such as Rupert. Judd has three children with husband Harry, a girl born 2016, and a boy born in 2017 and another boy born in 2021.


Nastasya "Tasya" Hodges

Hodges played the
cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
. Born in London, she is half-
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
n and spent her early life living in Croatia and Belgium. She returned to England when she won a scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in
Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
. She then spent four years at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...
where she won a prize to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra for three months. She graduated from the Guildhall in 2004. She has also performed with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and performed with Jeff Wayne on his ''War of the Worlds'' Tour in 2006 then toured with Take That in 2007. She has also recorded with the
Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. They comprise lead singer Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley. The co-founder and original bassist Andy Nicholson ...
and
The Streets The Streets is an English musical project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner (musician), Mike Skinner. The project was founded in the early 90s, while Skinner was still a teenager; however, no music would formally eventuat ...
. She was a member of The Heritage Orchestra, who recorded their first album at
Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...
, which was released on 14 August 2006. She has also performed at the
Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...
, and London Jazz Festivals. In 2014 she left the group to go to New York with her husband.


Discography


Albums


Charting songs

*The following songs from the group's self-titled album charted but were not released as singles.


See also

* Bond


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Escala Britain's Got Talent contestants English string quartets Musical groups established in 2006