St. Patrick’s Cathedral organist Daniel Brondel, a native of France, gave a concert April 26 at the famed Manhattan cathedral in the wake of the major fire at Notre Dame de Paris.
Brondel, who is also the associate director of music at St. Patrick’s, also gave a concert attended by hundreds of people March 29 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse. He played works by Vierne, Bach, Mozart, Reger, and others.
In an email to the Sun, Brondel wrote: “We were all shattered by what happened in Paris last week Monday. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Washington DC has asked me to play a concert in honor of, and solidarity with, Notre Dame de Paris.”
The fire that destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral’s wooden structure and collapsed its famed spire erupted the evening of April 15.
According to the website for Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, the French Embassy planned to host public solidarity concerts in partnership with U.S. cathedrals in New York, Washington, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
The website says: “This series of concerts have been organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States with the French Consulates in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New Orleans, and the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in New York City, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C., Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans in partnership with the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris.”
According to Catholic News Service: “New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said he named a fundraising effort for the Paris cathedral ‘From St. Patrick’s to Notre Dame’ because he really wanted ‘to twin our beloved St Patrick’s Cathedral, America’s parish church here on Fifth Avenue, with Notre Dame.’”
