Over the next few months, you may hear the sounds of a majestic pipe organ being tested around the Virginia Commonwealth University area near Monroe Park. “These sounds will remind us of how beautiful God himself must be,” says Father Anthony E. Marques, the rector at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

After eight years of planning and a dedicated $3.2 million fundraising campaign, the 2,300-member Catholic church has acquired three new organs to replace its original, much renovated and overhauled gallery organ (with 3,916 pipes) which was said at one time to be among the largest in the country.

The first two, smaller organs have already been installed. Boasting 4,332 pipes and 67 stops, or sounds, the Cathedral’s new main gallery organ is next. It was designed and constructed by the Montreal, Canada-based Juget-Sinclair company, which is renowned for its adherence to old-school organ building in the 15th and 16th-century European style.

“Beauty is an important part of the church’s worship,” says Marques. “That includes visual beauty and, in this case, it includes mellifluous sounds, beautiful sounds that raise us up to God. We give God the best, you know.”

The new instrument is long overdue, says Carey Bliley, the chairman of Sacred Heart’s pipe organ committee and co-chair of the Cathedral Foundation’s pipe organ campaign committee. “The old organ had been held together with duct tape for many years. Some of the keys went back to the beginning of the cathedral’s founding [in 1906], pipes had fallen over and the electronics of the organ were in shambles. By the time it was taken out, 25 to 30% of it wouldn’t work, and those notes that did work were unreliable. I don’t know how the organist managed to play it.”

Sacred Heart’s 14-member pipe organ committee was established in 2016 to address the problems with the church’s main instrument. At first, they looked at repairing it, as was done many times before, but experts said it was hopeless. On their own dime, committee members began an extensive search of church organs around the world, visiting examples in France, Spain, Belgium and even Texas and Nebraska. “We identified a master plan of what the needs were for the cathedral,” says Bliley. “That’s how we landed on three organs.”

The first two instruments, also constructed by Juget-Sinclair, were installed in 2022. A small, 203-pipe continuo organ is now used in the sanctuary, or the elevated portion of the cathedral, while a mid-sized 1,494-pipe Chancel (or choir) organ is used for weddings, funerals and choral group concerts and is situated closer to the altar.

With its tallest pipe at 32 feet in length, the new main gallery organ is slated to be installed and “voiced” over several months starting in April (the installation will not interfere with Sunday masses, say church officials). The organ’s total weight will be approximately 15 tons. According to a press statement, Sacred Heart had to reinforce its choir loft area with steel plates because some of the pressure points of the organ will be 4,000 pounds or more.

The pipe organ committee disbanded in 2018, once the decision to work with Juget-Sinclair was established. The church foundation’s pipe organ campaign committee took up the task of fundraising. That body is looking into interesting ways to help maintain this new instrument, says Father Tony. “The committee came up with this great idea called Adopt a Stop. It’s where a parishioner, or anyone, can sponsor a stop on the organ based on the amount of money being contributed. That stop can be commemorated in honor of a loved one.”

Sacred Heart’s majestic, old-school organ is already creating a buzz. The titular organist at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, Olivier Latry, is slated to come to Richmond in October to play the new “Opus 55” in a special concert. “That’s like Michael Jordan coming to your town,” the rector says, laughing.

“We really looked at bringing an organ that was constructed in Europe back in the 16th, 17th, 18th century,” Bliley adds. “We wanted that kind of style, which uses Old World mechanical action. Hopefully, it will be around for centuries. ”

For more, go to https://www.richmondcathedralfoundation.org/.