Escala (group)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Escala
Also known asScala
OriginLondon, England
Genres
Syco, Sony
Members
  • Victoria Lyon
  • Honor Watson
  • Stephanie Benedetti
  • Helen Nash
Past members
  • Izzy Judd
  • Nastasya Hodges
  • Chantal Abel
Websiteescalamusic.com

Escala (formerly known as Scala) is an electronic string quartet 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

an album with the label in 2005. The four members of the group met in 2005 when they were part of the string section on an arena tour with McFly.[1]Three of them, Victoria Lyon, Chantal Leverton and Tasya Hodges, performed with Jeff Wayne on his War of the Worlds Tour in 2006.[2]

Britain's Got Talent

In the first round of the show, Escala performed a "techno version" of

Paul McCartney and Wings, 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.[3]

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.[4]

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 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."[5]

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.[citation needed]

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 –

lower case
'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.[7]

In July 2008 they were signed to perform as part of a new promotional campaign for Sky Sports 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 matches. The promotion campaign was also used to promote other upcoming sports events on the channel.[8]

Escala performed at the

national anthem.[9]

On 20 September 2008, Escala performed at the Help for Heroes rugby union challenge match at Twickenham Stadium, London in aid of wounded British servicemen and women.[10] 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'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 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.[11]

On 1 November 2009, Escala performed "Palladio", "Children" and "Kashmir" at the Women of Rock event in London's Royal Albert Hall 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 Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The quartet also features on "Louder than Words", from Pink Floyd's The Endless River (2014) [12]

Debut album

Escala revealed their debut album, aree a They

London Film Festival.[13][14]

In late March and April 2009, Escala began a regional promotional tour of the United Kingdom.

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

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, 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.[18][19]

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

Blue.[2]

Izzy Judd (née Johnston)

Judd plays violin and comes from a family of professional musicians. Her parents run a music school in

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.[citation needed]

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.[2] On 7 July 2012, Honor Watson was announced as her replacement.[20]

Since leaving Escala, Judd has been involved in charity work, mainly through the 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.[21]

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. Born in London, she is half-Croatian 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. She then spent four years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she won a prize to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra for three months.[14] She graduated from the Guildhall in 2004.[2] She has also performed with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain[citation needed] 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 and The Streets. She was a member of The Heritage Orchestra, who recorded their first album at Abbey Road Studios, which was released on 14 August 2006. She has also performed at the Montreux, and London Jazz Festivals.[2] In 2014 she left the group to go to New York with her husband.[19]

Discography

Albums

Year Album details Chart peak positions Certifications Sales
UK IRE
2009 Escala[22] 2[23] 10
  • UK: 100,000+
2016 Quadrasonic
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Charting songs

  • The following songs from the group's self-titled album charted but were not released as singles.
Year Single Chart positions Album
UK IE
EU
2009 "Kashmir" 78 Escala
"
Palladio"[25]
39 49
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

See also

  • Bond

References

  1. ^ "Escala - A stunning electric string quartet that fuses contemporary sounds with classical instruments to create a sensational sound. The four talented girl musicians caused a sensation in the final of ITV’s 'Britain’s Got Talent' in 2008". performingartistes.co.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Escala homepage". Escala. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  3. The Daily Mirror
    . Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  4. ^ "George Sampson wins Britain's Got Talent". The Daily Telegraph. London. 1 June 2008. Archived from the original on 4 June 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2008.
  5. The Sunday Mirror. Archived from the original
    on 1 June 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2006.
  6. ^ "Britain's Got Talent: row over Scala's name". The Daily Mirror. 30 May 2008. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  7. ^ Kilkelly, Danel (8 June 2008). "'Talent' finalists Escala sign Cowell deal". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
  8. ^ "Sky's string stars! Palladio to soundtrack Sky Sports ad campaign". Sky Sports. 8 July 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
  9. ^ "News Archive". Hayley Westenra official website. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  10. ^ "Help for Heroes Challenge Match – Saturday 20 September 2008". Help for Heroes. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  11. ^ "Osborne House Concerts 2009 – Simply Red and Anastacia Headline | Isle of Wight Tourist Information". www.islewight.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  12. ^ "'The Endless River' Officially Confirmed as Last Pink Floyd Album, First Full Song Available for Streaming". 9 October 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  13. ^ Schmidt, Veronica (29 October 2008). "Finally... it's time for the Quantum of Solace premiere". The Times. London. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h "Escala news". Escala. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  15. ^ "Escala's Regional Promotional Tour". Escala. 27 March 2009. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  16. ^ "Escala are heading up to the North-East for more Regional Promotion!". Escala. 7 April 2009. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  17. ^ a b Michaels, Sean (18 March 2008). "Slash to team up with Britain's Got Talent string quartet". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  18. ^ "Helen". Archived from the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  19. ^ a b "A Hello To New Member Helen Nash". Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  20. ^ "Welcome Honor!". 7 July 2012. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  21. ^ "Rupert tells everyone I'm Harry from McFly.. but he's the special one". The Daily Mirror. 14 March 2013.
  22. ^ "Escala by Escala - Music Charts". Acharts.co. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  23. ^ "The Official Charts Company – Escala – Escala". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
  24. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ^ "Palladio by Escala - Music Charts". Acharts.co. Retrieved 21 June 2020.

External links