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Daniel Sáñez, director of music and liturgy for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, at the keys of the church’s new pipe organ (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Sáñez plays the new pipe organ to accompany the church choir. (Photo courtesy Catholic Diocese of Richmond)
Dedication concerts later this month for the grandest of three new organs at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart cap a yearslong process that recalls an exhortation from the letter of Jesus’ disciple Paul to Christians in Rome: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer” (Romans 12:12).
When conversations began in 2016 about replacing the cathedral’s sole organ, church staff and members had no way of knowing their process, grounded in hope and prayer, would lead to a plan that included not one but three new organs or that fundraising would take place in the midst of a global pandemic.
“The [original] organ had issues for years and years,” says Carey Bliley, chair of the organ committee, and president and CEO of Bliley’s funeral homes. “When our former organist left, we brought in an expert to give us a third-party perspective, and he said we needed to replace it.”
The cathedral, which serves as the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in 1906. The original pipe organ, installed soon after the church opened, sat above the congregation at the rear of the church and was played from two consoles, one in the gallery and one at the front of the church.
As the committee deliberated, calling on an organ consultant for guidance, they decided that three organs would best serve the cathedral’s needs: the primary organ in the gallery plus a choir organ near the altar and a smaller, portable organ — called a continuo — that could be moved within the sanctuary for intimate concerts or performances.
“We all got to a point where we knew what we needed, which made it easier to stomach a $3 million project,” Bliley says. “We were very transparent from the beginning, and people challenged the project along the way. That helped people say, ‘Yes, this is a lot of money, but, yes, this needs to happen.’”
Carey Bliley, chair of the organ committee; Father Anthony E. Marques; and Daniel Sáñez (Photo courtesy Catholic Diocese of Richmond)
The project was jump-started by a $1 million gift from a former parishioner. Additional large donations came from a variety of individuals and the Diocese of Richmond. “We had benefactors who were very supportive,” Bliley says. “We made it a point to not put this [effort] in competition with the cathedral. We kept it under the radar and had conversations with people we knew who were interested.”
The committee took self-financed trips to several U.S. states and European countries to listen to organs crafted by the companies that submitted proposals. Ultimately, the committee chose Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders of Montreal, drawn by the complex sounds they heard from that shop’s instruments. For Daniel Sáñez, who was hired as the church’s director of music and liturgy as the organ committee was starting its work, interaction with the instruments is even more personal.
“You can feel the key opening the various valves,” Sáñez says. “You can feel the sound in the keys.”
Photo by Robin Côté
The choir and continuo organs arrived at the cathedral in 2022 and have been in use since. The gallery pipe organ, Opus 55, required two years of labor and roughly 40,000 hours of fabrication, says Robin Côté, Juget-Sinclair’s president. (See and hear the pipe organ in action.)
“It’s like a suit,” Côté says. “You have to measure, design and assemble while leaving extra material. Then you come for a final fitting.”
The gallery organ’s final fitting took place over several weeks throughout this year. With 4,332 pipes and 67 stops, the organ weighs 15 tons and required the addition of steel plates for support. Installation occurred in April, while “voicing” — adjusting the pipes and stops to create the best sound for the space — took place throughout the summer. By contrast, the choir organ has 1,494 pipes and 21 stops; the portable continuo organ has 203 pipes and four stops.
Dedication concerts for the pipe organ will be Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. with Olivier Latry, titular organist at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, at the keyboard. The concerts are free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Latry will also play the organ during the vespers (evening prayer) service on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m.; that service is also open to the public, and no reservations are necessary.
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Photo by Jay Paul
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Photo by Jay Paul
Ultimately, the new organs serve a higher purpose than simply providing music.
“Music is not just a decoration, but an integral part of worship,” says Father Anthony E. Marques, who was called to the cathedral as rector while the organ project was underway. “It has the ability to raise our minds and our hearts to God.”
Adds Sáñez, “[These new organs] give us the broadest spectrum for worship. Music is another layer of praise, another layer of giving honor and homage to God or the Divine. [Our] vision is that these instruments will be here past our lifetimes.”
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