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The Scala story is truly a dream come true. The
classically trained Kolacny brothers, Steven (piano) and Stijn
(conducting) have turned this Belgian girls’ choir into an
international phenomenon, performing imaginatively reworked
covers of Radiohead, U2, Rammstein and Nirvana songs (to name
but a few) as well as, their equally successful original
compositions before sold-out audiences throughout the world.
In February 2009, Scala performed for the first time in the
United States at the New York Times Center. Later this year, the
first ‘Scala live’ TV special will start to air on PBS (the live
recording took place April 28th at the ‘Concertgebouw’ of
Bruges). In conjunction with the PBS special, Scala will
release their first CD and DVD, ‘Circle’, in the Fall of 2010
and the choir will tour the U.S. in April 2011.
Scala currently has more than 200 young women between the ages
of 16 and 26 on its member list, but the choir started very
small. The very first rehearsal took place on April 2nd 1996,
with just 18 singers. The brothers' intention was to work with
"voices" in their free time, thinking that a choir would be the
best form for their experiment!
Scala started more or less as a classical choir. The many
rehearsals, hard work and perseverance soon led to prizes at
choir festivals and contests. In their home country Belgium,
Scala became "Choir of The Year 1999-2000" and have won top
prizes around the world. In his search for ‘a different sound’,
older brother Steven started arranging pop and rock hits, which
younger brother Stijn directed. This led to Scala the ‘rock
choir’ being born, almost without them even realizing it.
 Their
first CD, ‘Scala On The Rocks’ was released December 1st, 2002.
The idea was simple but daring: transposing rock songs into a
believable sound using 40 young women’s voices and 1 piano. The
success of this first CD, the favorable reviews from press and
the audience, were beyond everyone’s wildest expectations. The
CD got the support of nearly all-Belgian radio stations,
newspapers and magazines and from leading names within the
Belgian rock scene. Sales of “On The Rocks’ CD achieved gold in
Belgium; making it the first ever choir to score a gold album!
 At
the end of 2003, the second CD, "Dream On" (named after the
Depeche Mode song) was released and Scala started its first "On
The Rocks" sold-out tour throughout Belgium. Neighboring
countries showed interest and it was not long before Scala's
CD's made the playlist of radio stations throughout Europe. In
Paris, RTL2 and M6 rolled out the red carpet and Nikola Sirkis,
the lead singer of mega group Indochine, let it be known that he
loved Scala. This resulted in a collaboration with Indochine, a
duet with Nikola, two concerts (Brussels/Paris) in one day and a
guest appearance on Indochine’s CD “Starlight”. As a result, the
Scala CD "Respire", an album with French rock songs, was
released in 2004.
In Germany, Radio Fritz in Berlin discovered
Scala around the same time. Thanks to airplay of the Scala
version of German superstar Rammstein’s "Engel" – which
Rammstein endorsed enthusiastically - and a live Fritz-concert
in Berlin in August 2004, Scala started getting requests for
concerts throughout Germany, as well as from radio and
TV-stations. They performed with the German band "MIA" and in
2005 Scala released “Grenzenlos”, its first CD in German.
 In
2005 Steven, in partnership with Koen Buyse, front man of the
Belgian rock band Zornik, started writing songs in earnest. The
collaboration resulted in the album, ‘It All Leads To This’
(released in Belgium in September 2006), which again went
‘gold’. An ‘It All Leads To This’ tour followed throughout
several countries. This tour strongly emphasized sound, light,
sets and projection. Finally, the Scala concept was complete:
take rock classics and pop hits, strip them down and rework them
in a totally new dimension, utilizing celestial female voices.
Simple but brilliant.
 In
2008 Scala was asked to do a project in remembrance of the
legendary Belgian singer Pierre Rapsat, who died in 2002. The
sold out “Dans les Yeux d’Aurore’ tour strengthened Scala’s
relationship with Belgium’s French-speaking audience. The number
of concerts in Germany also increased steadily and Scala
performed more and more songs in German, including its version
of MIA’s hit, ‘Hungriges Herz’, which was used in a top national
German television commercial.
Symbolically, Scala is completing its ‘Circle’, from covers to
their own songs, from churches to rock music festivals, from
Belgium via Japan to the States. Scala is spreading its wings,
introducing new audiences to new original music. Like the
potter’s hands molding masterpieces from clay, the Kolacny
brothers are taking these female voices, the choir’s soul and
shaping them in their own inimitable way.
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