I want to go home
Artist biographies
Sarah Joyce Cooper
Sarah Joyce Cooper is an award winning soprano known for her “passionate power” (Parterre Box) and “meltingly beautiful” (Opera News) singing. Recent highlights include her debut with Seattle Opera as Minnie Tate in the world premiere of Tazewell Thompson’s Jubilee; Carnegie Hall appearances as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore with the New England Symphonic Ensemble; and the title role in James Kallembach’s American Jezebel:The Trial of Anne Hutchinson, a world premiere performance commissioned by Harvard University that tells the story of theologian, midwife, and co-founder of Rhode Island, Anne Hutchinson. Performances for the 2025-26 season include a return to Rochester Oratorio Society as the soloist in the highly anticipated Rochester premiere of Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, her debut with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra as the soloist in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, an appearance with the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and a soloist appearance in the world premiere performance of Mark Hayes’s Psalmos at Carnegie Hall. This summer she looks forward to making her debut with Opera Acadia as Violetta in La Traviata.
Ramsey Reyes
Ramsey Reyes is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and conductor. Fluent in five languages, Ramsey has largely focused on coaching languages with singers. Ramsey has worked at a number of opera organizations, including the Academy of Vocal Arts, Opera North, Opera Orlando, Vienna Summer Music Festival, and others. Currently Ramsey is the music and choir director at St. Agatha-St. James Church, an apprentice conductor for the Philadelphia Ballet, an assistant conductor for the University of Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra and Soli Deo Gloria Chorale, music director for the Penn Singers Light Opera Company, and a piano instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. This summer, he will be a faculty member at Varna International, where he will be a pianist and cover conductor for Carmen. He also is the founder of the Virtú Institute, a summer program for middle school students. Ramsey holds degrees from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
About the choir
TheSt. Agatha-St. James Choir, comprised of college students and young adults and led by Ramsey Reyes, is the primary choir at the St. Agatha-St. James Parish. They sing a variety of liturgical styles, ranging from medieval chant to gospel music. The choir emphasizes the value of singing in different languages and time periods as a way of highlighting the universality of the Church. In addition to their presence on Sundays, they also sing periodically at the Cathedral Basilica of Philadelphia and perform an annual Christmas concert with orchestra.
Program Notes And TextS
Part I: HeRmit Songs
Barber’s Hermit Songs are settings of anonymous texts by medieval Irish monks—at turns pious and bawdy—written in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. Barber found these texts “straightforward, droll, and often surprisingly modern.” … Barber composed Hermit Songs in 1953; the same year, Leontyne Price premiered the cycle at the Library of Congress, with the composer at the piano. Barber’s use of lean harmonies and ancient church modes evokes antiquity, yet the directness of the text setting is unmistakably of the 20th century. Barber eschews time signatures throughout, imbuing the songs with a rhythmic flexibility. The piano accompaniment is often pictorial: a repeated gesture in the left hand marks the pilgrim’s steady march in “At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory,” and the peal of the carillon rings out in “Church Bell at Night.” In “The Monk and His Cat,” the titular feline plods across the piano, striking “wrong” notes. “St. Ita’s Vision,” an account of the sixth-century nun begins with recitative followed by a tender and ecstatic lullaby sung to the baby Jesus. The eternal and at times uneasy relationship between sacred and profane permeates the Hermit Songs. Barber heightens the solemn devotion of the Crucifixion with open, modal harmonies and spare melodies, while the vocal line in “Promiscuity,” a four-note figure of minor thirds, resembles a schoolyard taunt. “The Heavenly Banquet” depicts a mingling of heavenly and earthly pleasures, where saints, Jesus, and beer are all celebrated. These varied ruminations on life and devotion conclude in reflection. Austere save for an emotional piano interlude, “A Desire for Hermitage” embraces solitude. The open intervals in the final bar of the piano are themselves empty cells, inviting closeness and isolation. — Andy McIntyre
I. At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory
Pity me on my pilgrimage to Loch Derg!
O King of the churches and the bells
Bewailing your sores and your wounds
But not a tear can I squeeze from my eyes!
Not moisten an eye after so much sin!
Pity me, O King!
What shall I do with a heart that seeks only its own ease?
O only begotten Son by whom all men were made,
Who shunned not the death by three wounds,
Pity me on my pilgrimage to Loch Derg
And I with a heart not softer than a stone!
13th century, translated by Sean O’ Faolain
II. Church Bell At Night
Sweet little bell, struck on a windy night,
I would liefer keep tryst with thee
Than be with a light and foolish woman.
12th century, translated by Howard Mumford Jones
III. Saint ItA’s Vision
'I will take nothing from my Lord,' said she,
'unless He gives me His Son from Heaven
In the form of a Baby that I may nurse Him.'
So that Christ came down to her
in the form of a Baby and then she said:
'Infant Jesus, at my breast,
Nothing in this world is true
Save, O tiny nursling, You.
Infant Jesus at my breast,
By my heart every night,
You I nurse are not a churl
But were begot on Mary the Jewess
By Heaven's light.
Infant Jesus at my breast,
What King is there but You who could
Give everlasting good?
Wherefore I give my food.
Sing to Him, maidens, sing your best!
There is none that has such right
To your song as Heaven's King
Who every night
Is Infant Jesus at my breast'.
Attributed to St. Ita, 8th century, translated by Chester Kallman
IV. The Heavenly Banquet
I would like to have the men of Heaven in my own house;
with vats of good cheer laid out for them.
I would like to have the three Mary's,
their fame is so great.
I would like people from every corner of Heaven.
I would like them to be cheerful in their drinking.
I would like to have Jesus sitting here among them.
I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings.
I would like to be watching Heaven's family
Drinking it through all eternity.
Attributed to St. Brigid, 10th Century, translated by Sean O’Faolain
V. The Crucifixion
At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify Thee, O Swan!
Never shall lament cease because of that.
It was like the parting of day from night.
Ah, sore was the suffering borne
By the body of Mary's Son,
But sorer still to Him was the grief
Which for His sake
Came upon His Mother.
From The Speckled Book, 11th century, translated by Howard Mumford Jones
VI. Sea Snatch
It has broken us, it has crushed us, it has drowned us,
O King of the starbright Kingdom of Heaven!
The wind has consumed us, swallowed us,
As timber is devoured by crimson fire from Heaven.
It has broken us, it has crushed us, it has drowned us,
O King of the starbright Kingdom of Heaven!
8th - 9th century, translated by Kenneth Jackson
VII. Promiscuity
I do not know with whom Edan will sleep,
but I do know that fair Edan will not sleep alone.
9th century, translated by Kenneth Jackson
VIII. The Monk and his Cat
Pangur, white Pangur,
How happy we are
Alone together, Scholar and cat.
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me, study.
Your shining eye watches the wall;
My feeble eye is fixed on a book.
You rejoice when your claws entrap a mouse;
I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem.
Pleased with his own art
Neither hinders the other;
Thus we live ever
Without tedium and envy.
Pangur, white Pangur,
How happy we are,
Alone together, Scholar and cat.
8th or 9th century, translated by W. H. Auden
IX. The PRaises of God
How foolish the man who does not raise
His voice and praise with joyful words,
As he alone can, Heaven’s High King.
To whom the light birds with no soul but air,
All day, everywhere laudations sing.
11th century, translated by W. H. Auden
X. The Desire for Hermitage
Ah! To be all alone in a little cell with nobody near me;
beloved that pilgrimage before the last pilgrimage to Death.
Singing the passing hours to cloudy Heaven;
feeding upon dry bread and water from the cold spring.
That will be an end to evil when I am alone
in a lovely little corner among tombs
Far from the houses of the great.
Ah! To be all alone in a little cell, to be alone, all alone:
Alone I came into the world,
Alone I shall go from it.
8th - 9th century, based on a translation by Sean O’Faolain
Part II
Plenty Good Room
Refrain:
Plenty good room, plenty good room,
plenty good room in my Father's kingdom,
Plenty good room, plenty good room,
just choose your seat and sit down.
I would not be a sinner,
I'll tell you the reason why;
cause if my Lord should call on me
I wouldn't be ready to die. [Refrain]
I would not be a backslider,
I'll tell you the reason why;
cause if my Lord should call on me
I wouldn't be ready to die. [Refrain]
Roun’ about de Mountain
Refrain:
Plenty good room, plenty good room,
plenty good room in my Father's kingdom,
Plenty good room, plenty good room,
just choose your seat and sit down.
I would not be a sinner,
I'll tell you the reason why;
cause if my Lord should call on me
I wouldn't be ready to die. [Refrain]
I would not be a backslider,
I'll tell you the reason why;
cause if my Lord should call on me
I wouldn't be ready to die. [Refrain]
His Name so Sweet
Oh Lord, I jes’ come from de fountain,
I’m jus’ from de fountain, Lord,
I jes’ come from de fountain
His Name so sweet.
Po’ sinner, do you love Jesus?
Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus.
Sinner, do you love Jesus?
His name so sweet. (refrain)
Class leader, do you love Jesus?
Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus.
Leader, do you love Jesus?
His name so sweet. (refrain)
Zidn’ Elder, do you love Jesus?
Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus.
Elder, do you love Jesus?
His name so sweet. (refrain)
I Believe I’ll Go Back Home
I believe I'll go back home, I believe I'll go back home
I believe I'll go back home, acknowledge I've done wrong
When I left my Father's house, I was well supplied
I made a mistake when I did go, now I'm dissatisfied
I talked to God Last Night
Last night I was weary and lonely, the world seemed a desolate place. So I wandered afar, fixed my eyes on a star, in search of a friendly face. The bells had just told midnight, the rustling wings the silence broke. In the darkness I beheld a vision, and my lips trembled as I spoke. I talked to God last night, high on the top of a hill. His face shone bright with a Holy Light and the world like my heart stood still. I talked to God last night, through misty eyes I could see. The mark of thorns his brow still adorns while pierced hands stretched out to me.
I said: “Master did you dot the world with trees, paint the rainbow and the bluebird’s wing? Did you bid the sun to rise, sprinkle star dust in the skies? And to every growing thing grant the magic kiss of spring?”
I talked to God last night! Begged him my doubts to relieve. As night turned to day, I heard a voice say: “Believe”
Part III
Fix Me Jesus
Oh fix me, oh fix me, oh fix me
Fix me Jesus, fix me
Fix me for my long white robe
Fix me Jesus, fix me
Fix me for my starry crown
Fix me Jesus, fix me [Refrain]
Fix me for my journey home
Fix me Jesus, fix me
Fix me for my dying bed
Fix me Jesus, fix me [Refrain]
Fix me for my home on high
Fix me Jesus, fix me
Fix me for my by and by
Fix me Jesus, fix me [Refrain]
Steal Away
Refrain:
Steal away, steal away,
Steal away to Jesus!
Steal away, steal away home.
I ain't got long to stay here.
My Lord, He calls me,
He calls me by the thunder.
The trumpet sounds within a-my soul.
I ain't got long to stay here. [Refrain]
Green trees are bending,
Poor sinners stand a-trembling.
The trumpet sounds within a-my soul.
I ain't got long to stay here. [Refrain]
Me Lord, He calls me,
He calls me by the lightning.
The trumpet sounds within a-my soul.
I ain't got long to stay here. [Refrain]
Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel,
Then why not every man?
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel,
Deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel,
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel,
And why not a every man?
He deliver'd Daniel from the lion's den,
Jonah from the belly of the whale,
And the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace,
And why not every man? [Refrain]
The wind blows east and the wind blows west,
It blows like the judgement day,
And ev'ry poor soul that never did pray
Will be glad to pray that day. [Refrain]
I set my foot on the Gospel ship,
And the ship, it begin to sail,
It landed me over on Canaan's shore,
And I'll never come anymore. [Refrain]
Going Home
Goin' home, goin' home,
I'm a goin' home;
Quiet like, some still day,
I'm jes' goin' home.
It's not far, jes' close by,
Through an open door;
Work all done, care laid by,
gwine to fear no more.
Mother's there 'spectin' me,
Father's waitin' too;
Lots o'folk gather'd there,
All the friends I knew.
Home, home, I'm goin' home!
Nothin' lost, all's gain,
No more fret nor pain,
No more stumblin' on the way,
No more longin' for the day,
Gwine to roam no more!
Mornin' star lights the way,
Res'less dreams all done;
Shadows gone, break o'day,
Real life jes' begun.
Dere's no break, ain't no end,
Jes' a livin' on;
Wide awake, with a smile
Goin' on and on.
Goin' home, goin' home,
I'm jes' goin' home.
It's not far, jes' close by,
Through an open door;
I'm jes' goin' home.
Goin' home.