Stellar reviews greeted Daniel Sáñez's Vol. 1 of What I Do on Sundays, released in 2024 and played on the cathedral's 21-rank Choir organ built in 2022 by Juget-Sinclair in the chancel and on the 4-rank Portative, Op. 53.  Now, Daniel releases the first album recorded on the Juget-Sinclair magnum opus of 67 stops, Op. 55 located in the gallery of the cathedral. He improvises gorgeous works based on chant and celebrating events of The Liturgical Year. The sound is stupendous!

Daniel Sáñez: More of What I Do on Sundays
If you enjoyed What I Do on Sundays, I hope you find this second volume as engaging. These improvisations blend ancient melodies with a personal, modern voice – music meant to inspire the listener and to accompany reflections throughout the Church year. Apart from the Entrada, each piece draws from chant, with the appropriate Marian Antiphon beginning each season, as traditional as the candles of an Advent wreath.

Begin the journey with the Entrada (Track 1), a processional into the cathedral. Alma Redemp­toris Mater (Track 2) opens into Advent and Christmas, evoking the mystery of time before creation. He Is Born (3), built on Puer natus est nobis, radiates the joy of the Nativity, while Kings’ Homage (4) honors the Epiphany, weaving together Eastern and Western traditions to depict the Magi’s reverence.

The brief period of Ordinary Time in winter follows the Salve Regina (5), using the solemn minor-mode chant to reflect the lingering resonance of Christmas. Lent arrives with Conversion (6), a free meditation on Ave Regina Cælorum. For Holy Week, I chose to focus on Holy Thursday, when the Church sings Ubi Caritas, “Where There Is Love,” as it commemorates the institution of the holy priesthood and recalls Christ’s command to join in service and to live in communion (7).

Easter bursts forth in Regina Cæli (8), a jubilant toccata, followed by Breath (9), an improvisation on Veni, sancte Spiritus, symbolizing the Holy Spirit moving freely through creation. Echoing the journey from sorrow to the hope of eternal life that the Church traverses in November, Be at Rest (10) pairs Requiem æternam with Dies iræ.

The finale, Revelation (11), paints scenes of the Apocalypse: trumpet calls, visions of heaven, cosmic battles, and the promise of renewal, closing with a Gregorian Alleluia. Like the dismissal at Mass, this conclusion, in the tradition of the French sortie, inspires us onward: “Go forth, glorifying the Lord by your life.”
 —Daniel Sáñez

Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders, Op. 55, 2024, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Gallery Organ, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond, Virginia

I. Grand-orgue (100mm wind)
16 Montre
16 Bourdon
8 Montre
8 Salicional
8 Bourdon
8 Flûte harmonique
4 Prestant
4 Flûte ouverte
2-2/3 Quinte
2 Doublette
1-3/5 Tiercelette
II+IV Fourniture
III Cymbale
V Cornet (Middle C)
16 Bombarde
8 Trompette
4 Clairon
8 Trompette-en-chamade
4-16 Chamade
Carillon (POS)
II/I, III/I, III/I 16 
Ch I/I, Ch II/I, Ch II/I 16

II Positif expressif (90mm wind)
16 Quintaton
8 Principal
8 Bourdon
8 Dulciane
8 Unda-maris
4 Prestant
4 Flûte à cheminée
2-2/3 Nazard
2 Doublette
2 Flûte
1-3/5 Tierce
1-1/3 Larigot
1 Piccolo
V Plein-jeu
16 Cor anglais
8 Cromorne
8 Trompette
Tremblant
8 Trompette-en-chamade
4-16 Chamade
Carillon 
III/II
Ch I/II, Ch II/II, Ch II/II

III. Récit expressif (110mm wind)
16 Bourdon
8 Flûte traversière
8 Cor-de-nuit
8 Viole de gambe
8 Voix-céleste
4 Flûte octaviante
4 Salicional
2-2/3 Nazard harmonique
2 Octavin
1-3/5 Tierce harmonique
III-V Plein-jeu (2’)
16 Basson
8 Trompette harmonique
4 Clairon harmonique
8 Basson-hautbois
8 Clarinette harmonique
8 Voix-humaine
Tremblant
8 Trompette-en-chamade
4-16 Chamade
Ch I/III, Ch II/III

Pédale (100mm wind)
32 Principal-basse (ext. CB16)
16 Contre-basse
16 Montre (from I)
16 Soubasse
16 Bourdon doux (from I)
16 Violon (ext. V8)
8 Flûte
8 Bourdon
8 Violoncelle
4 Prestant
4 Flûte
32 Contre-bombarde (ext. Bm16, 130mm wind)
16 Bombarde
16 Trombone
8 Trompette
4 Clairon
8 Trompette-en-chamade
Clairon-en-chamade
Carillon (POS)
I/P, II/P, III/P
Ch I/P, Ch II/P, Ch P/P

All stops of the Choir Organ, Op. 54 located in the Chancel, are present on the Gallery keydesk:
Choir Organ I Floating
16 Bourdon
8 Montre
8 Flûte traversière
8 Bourdon
8 Dulciane
4 Prestant
2-2/3  Quinte
2 Doublette
IV Plein-jeu

Choir Organ II (Expressive) Floating
8 Cor-de-nuit
8 Viole de gambe
8 Voix céleste
4 Prestant
4 Flûte octaviante
2 Octavin
II-V Plein-jeu
16 Basson
8 Trompette
8 Basson-hautbois
4 Clairon
Tremblant (affects entire Choir Organ)

Choir Organ Pédale Floating
16 Soubasse (from Ch I)
8 Basse ouverte (from Ch I)
8 Bourdon (from Ch I)
8 Prestant (from Ch I)
16 Trombone

Accessories
Clochettes (two turning stars)
Rossignol
Orage

Freeze (allows a registration to be set, then activated)
Reversible toestuds for both 32s
Temperament: 1/9-comma meantone

Combination Action: 300 levels
Advance and reverse pistons for assistants
20 Generals per level
6 manual divisionals and 4 pedal divisionals

Daniel Benjamin Sáñez
First-generation American and Hollywood, California, native Daniel Benjamin Sáñez is Director of Music & Liturgy, Organist, and Choirmaster for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Rich­mond, serving liturgical celebrations at the parish and for the Diocese of Richmond. With the clergy and staff, he endeavors to unite artistry and spirituality, where sacred music and liturgy create the space for Christ to be encountered.

Daniel is dedicated to enriching Richmond’s cultural landscape as Artistic Director of the Music for a Cathedral Space Concert Series, which features Grammy-­winning and internation­ally-­acclaimed ensembles such as the Estonian Philh­ar­monic Chamber Choir, Vox Luminis, and Stile Antico, as well as local ensembles and soloists.
Daniel aims to offer memorable musical experiences that resonate with the Cathedral’s historic and spiritual legacy. He has conducted the Cathedral’s Schola Cantorum in historically informed performances of renaissance and baroque music, including J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, in collaboration with local performance-practice ensembles Three Notch’d Road Baroque: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble (TNR) and Forgotten Clefs. He also leads the Cathedral Choir in an annual Advent Lessons and Carols and conducts the Choir in concert, performing works such as Mozart’s Requiem with TNR, arranged by preeminent Mozart scholar Robert Levin.

During Daniel’s appointment at the Cathedral, three new pipe organs have been installed. The continuo, choir, and gallery organs were hand crafted by Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders of Montréal. The third organ (Op. 55) is the firm’s magnum opus. This trinity of instruments enhance the Cathedral’s liturgies and concert offerings through their rich tapestry of sounds.

His 2024 recording on the Cathedral’s two smaller pipe organs, What I Do on Sundays: Daniel Sáñez Improvises (Raven OAR-188) has been described as “inventive, virtuosic, and stunning…. A gorgeous record­ing” (American Record Guide), “absolutely superb” (The Organ Club Journal, UK), and “inspired, sensitive, and colourful” (Organists’ Review, UK).

Before his appointment to the Cathedral, Daniel served as Director of Music, Organist, and Choirmaster for the Church of Saint Catherine of Siena in New York City, Associate Director of Music for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and Assistant Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, DC.

Daniel has performed with the Los Angeles (L.A.) Children’s Chorus, L.A. Master Chorale, L.A. Opera, Placido Domingo, Kronos Quartet, Richmond Symphony; and conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Williams, Keith Lockhart, Paul Salamunovich, and Jeanette Sorrell. He has performed throughout the USA and in Canada, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. At the American Guild of Organists Convention in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Daniel gave the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Tota Pulchra Es with the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Daniel has also performed for Pope Benedict XVI, the President of the United States, the White House staff, and the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He is a graduate of Jesuit schools Loyola High in Los Angeles and Boston College. As a Fulbright Fellow in Leipzig, Germany, he continued organ studies at the famed Thomaskirche, where J. S. Bach served as music director. He earned the Master of Music in Historical Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where he studied organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, voice, and choral conducting.

Daniel is a member of the New York City and Richmond Chapters of the American Guild of Organists, Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians, Organ Historical Society, Church Music Association of America, American Choral Directors Association, and National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

Three Organs for Sacred Heart Cathedral
Proposed and Built by Juget-Sinclair, Organbuilders

The year 2024 was important for Juget-Sinclair: our 30th anniversary coincided with the completion of our largest project to date! The acceptance of our proposal to build three organs (continuo, choir, and gallery organs) for the cathedral in Richmond was certainly stimulating for our team, but it also laid foundations of a fruitful relationship with the organ project committee. Obviously, this relationship goes beyond just business: after having spent more than five months in Richmond, we visited all over Virginia, made new connections, and deepened existing ones. It goes without saying that this has inspired us and contributed to the unique characters of these three organs.

For our part, it all starts with measuring the space, creating a vision, and putting this into a formal proposal. What we felt would suit the cathedral seemed to come as such a natural fit that the completed gallery organ has hardly strayed from the initial proposal!

Our approach to organbuilding is guided by our desire to build as much as possible ourselves. This is as philosophical as it is practical. We can realize the organ exactly as we imagine it, right down to the typeface marking the pistons: but it allows us to approach challenging designs with confidence.

To further refine our musical vision for the gallery organ, Robin Côté and Alex Ross spent a week in France and Spain to find inspiration and ideas in such masterpieces as Sainte-­Croix in Bordeaux, Aire-­sur-­l’Adour, Saint-­Sever, Ataun (Spain), and in Toulouse: la Dal­bade, la Daurade, and Saint-­Sernin. These organs (and others) informed our approach to the overall voicing scheme, but they also provided a few fun and interesting ideas such as a triple-length harmonic clarinet which we found at Saint-Sever.

Visually, we sought to create an architectural unity between the cathedral and the organ case by respecting the neo-renaissance style of the space. To better integrate the organ into the community, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is displayed on the tympanum of the grand pediment to represent the patronage of the cathedral, and the favorite flowers of the principal donors are sculpted into the garlands.

Behind the central tower of the organ case, we find the Récit and Positif boxes stacked one atop the other. On each side of center are situated the Grand-Orgue and Pédale windchests. On floor level, there are six cuneiform bellows, console action, and electric pedal windchests for the 16’ & 8’ flutes as well as the 32’s. The blower and primary are located in the original blower room adjacent to the gallery, but our wind system draws directly from the loft.

Musically, we wished to create a Catholic organ; i.e. one that is well adapted to play music in many styles of Catholic liturgies from various times and places. For this reason, the organ is rooted in French traditions of various centuries into which features from other traditions are woven. One example is the Pedale Trombone, though French in name, is thoroughly Teutonic.

To achieve this degree of flexibility while maintaining coherence, we needed to strike balances between traditions on the macro- and micro-scale. The Récit is very symphonic; boasting strings, harmonic reeds, gambas, color reeds, and harmonic flutes galore!

The Positif leans much more classical with its articulate principal chorus, flute mutations up to 1’, a North-German inspired trumpet, and an uncompromising 18th-C. French Cromorne. The Dulciane, Unda maris, Cor anglais, and Quintaton are chameleons that can be used to great effect in many different eras of music.

The Grand-Orgue and Pédale have one foot in each camp. The 16’ and 8’ Montres are slotted with a progressively smaller proportion of overlength as one ascends into the trebles. This concept continues right into the mixtures which are almost entirely cone-tuned. Similarly, light nicking in lower principals transitions to virtually no nicking in the Doublette and the mixtures. This allows the organist to have four creamy 8' fonds and a sparkling and articulate principal chorus. The slotting brings directionality to the basses, while coned trebles are more lyrical than a true symphonic organ.

We couldn’t dream of a more solid foundation for Op. 55 than the Principal-basse 32'. For us, this is one of the most versatile stops of the entire organ: it can accompany the celestes, a Germanic plenum, a fond d’orgue, the tutti — it takes the liturgy to the next level! The reed batteries of the Grand Orgue and Pedale are based on late 18th-C. French models both in construction and voicing. They are assertive, but they do need to be able to fill a cathedral after all.

Available on all manuals and pedal, the two chamades are very different from one another. The Trompette-­en-­chamade 8’ is French, round, and brings definition while still being able to blend into the tutti. The Chamade 4’-16’, on the other hand, has a much more Iberian character and breaks back from 4’ to 16’ at Middle C: it is rustic and exhilarating and opens musical possibilities which are seldom explored in the United States or Canada.
It has been our honor and privilege to conceive and build this organ for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. After two years of dedicated hard work, it brings us great joy to see our Opus 55 assuming its place as a part of the cathedral community: after all, an organ is not for just one person! We would like to thank Carey Bliley, Daniel Sáñez, Kim Kremer, Paul Thornock, Fr. Tony Marques, and the Cathedral Foundation Board. There are so many others, too long a list to put here.

Robin Côté, President, Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders
Stephen Sinclair, Vice-President
Clément Bodart, François Couture, Théodore
Dupuis, Dean Eckmann, Jean-Dominique Felx, Denis Juget, Alexis Kelly. Michal Michalik,
Alexander Ross, Graham Webb,
Philipp Windmoeller