John Wright, DSC 1959, and his wife Christine enjoyed a lovely surprise while dining at the Scotch Whisky Bruce Experience as part of a Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo package last week. Little did they know that 10 young members of this year’s ESMS Tattoo choir are singing at the Experience before every performance. Two of the children, Simon and Alice, made the surprise even more special by presenting John and Christine with a vintage Daniel Stewart tie and a Mary Erskine tartan scarf, before they and their friends returned to the Esplanade for the ninth of their twenty five performances. The 46 children in the choir, all aged from 10 to 13, are on stage for the whole Tattoo every night, singing on 13 separate occasions, which include opening the Tattoo singing an unaccompanied fanfare composed for children’s voices and, accompanied by the Massed Bands, performing the Evening Hymn in honour of the fallen, which this year is the beautiful and poignant ‘Be still my soul’ from ‘Finlandia’ by Sibelius. The recording of the Tattoo is seen across the world by hundreds of millions and you can catch it for the first time when it is broadcast on BBC 1 in the early evening of Monday 26 August.
