Noted by The New York Times for playing the organ with flair, French-born musician Daniel Brondel is the Associate Director of Music & Organist at Saint Patrick’s Cathedralin New York City, where he plays the pipe organ at Masses each week that are broadcast live on SiriusXM Radio and streamed on the internet. He is also the Associate Director of the Cathedral Choir, and he manages the organ recital series. Mr. Brondel regularly performs solo recitals in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Europe, and has also appeared as soloist in piano concertos of Mozart and Rachmaninoff, and organ concertos of Poulenc and Jongen. He recently accompanied the Sistine Chapel Choir during their visit to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and he has collaborated with famous opera stars, including Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Michael Fabiano, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Susan Graham, James Valenti, Danielle de Niece, and Joyce DiDonato.
Mr. Brondel is the co-founder and artistic director of The Salvatones, a vibrant professional vocal ensemble based in New York City. He made his Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) debut in 2010 as narrator in a performance of Erik Satie’s Sports et divertissements. He has also recorded and appeared regularly as countertenor soloist (Schnittke’s Requiem and Bach’s B-Minor Mass) with Grammy-Award-winner Paul Halley, and has sung with the Gentlemen of the Choir of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. He has performed extensively in oratorios of Bach and Handel, and in opera, notably the lead role of Oberon in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Praised for a colorful timbre and an exceptionally wide vocal range, he is featured as solo sopranist in Aural Borealis, a CD recording by award-winning Publick Musick.His first solo-organ album, The Glory of the Organ, recorded at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, is available from JAV Recordings, on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming services.
Prior to his appointment at the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Mr. Brondel was the Director of Music & Organist at nearby historic St. Malachy’s Church (The Actors’ Chapel), where he resurrected the legacy of famed organist/composer Paul Creston. He also served as Director of Music at St. Anne Church, in Rochester, New York, and as University Organist at the University of Rochester.In 2005, Daniel Brondel founded the Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Singers, the first auditioned youth choir at the Cathedral in over fifty years. The Young Singers performed in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to New York City in April 2008. Following a televised prayer service led by the pontiff, Mr. Brondel was heard playing organ works of Bach for several minutes on the worldwide television broadcast. In October 2010, he played the organ at Saint Peter’s Basilica (Vatican) for the Mass that opened the 9th International Festival of Sacred Music and Art.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studied organ with David Higgs and improvisation with Gerre Hancock and Rick Erickson, Mr. Brondel holds a Master of Music degree in Organ Performance. At Eastman, he did further doctoral work in organ and musicology, and studied voice with Jane McCoy. Master class teachers included Gillian Weir, Ludger Lohmann, Russell Saunders and Pierre Sancan. Mr. Brondel earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance cum laudefrom Georgia State University, Atlanta, where he studied piano with Geoffrey Haydon and organ with Sarah Martin. During his entire college career, he was a singer and French-diction coach for the Grammy-Award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus, directed by Robert Shaw. Recipient of a grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation, several prestigious academic fellowships, and winner of various piano competitions, Daniel Brondel also won the First Prize at the 1996 Arthur Poister Competition and the Second Prize at the 1996 National Young Artist Competition in Organ Playing of the American Guild of Organists in New York City. Mr. Brondel was the recipient of the 2016 Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel by Paris-based cultural organization La Renaissance Française.
A native of southern France, Mr. Brondel has lived in the United States since 1988. He is a member of EastWest Organists, the American Guild of Organists, and the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians. He has served as a member of the boards of Schola Cantorum on Hudson, of the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and of the St. Wilfrid Club.
