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.
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.
[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] 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, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan.
[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] 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.
[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.
[8] Escala performed at the 2008 FA Community Shield on 11 August at Wembley Stadium, and accompanied Hayley Westenra when she sang 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.
[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.
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.
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.
Her parents run a music school in Hertfordshire[14] and her three older brothers Rupert, Magnus and Guy were all musicians.
[citation needed] She performed an arrangement of the Four Seasons at the 2005 Proms with her brother Magnus, at the Royal Albert Hall.
[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.
[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.
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.