Photos: The Fire Ensemble Presents PERICLES In Concert

On Saturday, June 3, Harlem-based composer/theater artist Troy Anthony’s NYC choir community, The Fire Ensemble, presented a free, one-night-only public sharing of their developmental concert, Pericles. See photos from the performance.

The event showcased the culmination of the choir’s weekly rehearsal sessions at The Shed. The Fire Ensemble aims to expand the canon of musical works that place community, ritual, and collective liberation at their center.

This spring, the choir has workshopped songs from their new work, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Pericles. Featuring original music and lyrics from Anthony, Pericles combines influences from Black musical traditions including gospel and R&B with Shakespearean verse to offer an updated take on shipwrecks, pirates, jousting tournaments, and epic journeys in the first public sharing of this work.

Continuing The Fire Ensemble’s collective approach that centers intergenerational BIPOC communities, Pericles explores themes of grief and hard-won joy.