Escala
Escala Biography
The glamorous electric string quartet Escala first caused a sensation in the 2008 final of ITV1’s Britain’s Got Talent. They narrowly missed out on winning but their innovative fusion of contemporary sounds and classical instruments instantly won over over difficult-to-please judge Simon Cowell, and he signed them up to a seven figure record deal.
Comprising of violinists Victoria Lyon and Izzy Johnston , viola player Chantal Leverton and cellist Tasya Hodge , Escala are all highly trained classical musicians with an incredible 80 years worth of musical training and experience between them.
They have studied at London’s most prestigious music colleges and played with the UK's most illustrious orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. They have also toured with the likes of Take That, Simply Red, Arctic Monkeys and Michael Ball . Infact, it was on tour with boyband McFly that the four girls became close friends and decided to work together to create a new musical phenomenon.
Fascinating Escala Facts
Violinist Victoria Lyon is the great-great-granddaughter of the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Known as ‘The Swedish Nightingale’, Lind settled in Britain and is commemorated in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey.
Cellist Tasya Hodges, speaks four languages; English, Croatian, French and Portuguese.
Izzy Johnston comes for a very musical family. Her parents run a music school in Harpended, her father is a clarinettist and her mother plays the bassoon. Izzy’s three brothers are all musicians – Magnus (violin) is a BBC New Generation Artist, Guy (cello) was BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000 and Rupert played French horn until he was sadly suffered a brain injury in a near fatal car accident. “Rupert is my inspiration. Despite his brain injury, he can still play the French horn. Through his own determination, he has survived, ” praises Izzy.
The quartet star as 'The Legs' of the new advertising campaign for the leading hosiery brand, Pretty Polly's 'Naturals' range.
The girls are passionate about becoming role models to a younger audience and encouraging children to embrace learning to play classical instruments; "“It is so important to show children that it can be cool to play them. It does work because after the finals of Britain’s Got Talent, I went back to the school where I taught and so many girls and boys who had seen us on television came up said how they really wanted to learn viola and would I teach them,” says Chantal.
Escala Music
Escala's debut album, 'Escala' was released on 25 May 2009 and entered the UK Album Charts at No.2.
Produced by the Grammy Award winning Trevor Horn , their debut successfully fuses pop and electronic sounds with classical instruments to create a unique and universally accessible sound that sits just as comfortably in the pop and classical charts.
The album features Escala's interpretations of well known pop classics including Children , originally recorded by Italian DJ Robert Miles, Ennio Morricone 's Chi Mai , Wing's Live & Let Die and Craig Armstrong ’s haunting Finding Beauty and not forgetting their now infamous version of Karl Jenkin 's Palladio.
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