The Fire Ensemble

ONGOING COLLABORATION
An intergenerational choir community dedicated to using song and ritual as tools for collective liberation centering BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folx

About this collaboration

Led by composer and artistic director Troy Anthony, The Fire Ensemble is an intergenerational choir community for New Yorkers currently being incubated by The Shed. With the intention of exploring new ways of collaborating with artists at the intersection of artistic practice and community-building, The Shed will provide space, resources, and strategic consultation to this project and its members, and count on them for creative leadership and thought partnership.

Join Us

The Fire Ensemble is for shower singers, professionals, and anyone in between. Our doors are always open to new members. Whether you are interested in coming to a single rehearsal or singing with us for the entire season, we welcome you to join our choir community as we explore the power of our individual voices to make music collectively.

During free, weekly rehearsals, singers from different backgrounds and identities come together to use music and ritual as tools to explore collective liberation, intergenerational healing, radical relationships, and personal emergence. Though the invitation to participate in collective liberation is open to all, The Fire Ensemble is committed to centering BIPOC communities.

Rehearsals will begin Monday, September 11, and will be held most Monday evenings afterward from 6 – 8 pm through November 20 at The Shed. To join the Ensemble, please fill out this RSVP form.

The Fire Ensemble Team

Artist Troy Anthony sits against a white background with hands in his lap, smiling broadly. Troy is a Black person with a shaved head who wears glasses and a teal t-shirt in this photo.
Photo: Jennifer Young.
Troy Anthony
Troy Anthony
Founding Artistic Director and Composer

Troy Anthony is a Kentucky-born composer/lyricist, director, and theater-maker based in NYC practicing Black queer joy. He has received commissions from The 5th Avenue Theater, The Civilians, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and The Shed. He’s enjoyed residencies with Musical Theater Factory (MTF), The O’Neill Theater Center, and Village Theater. Additionally, he’s presented work at Joe’s Pub, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, JACK, Prospect Theater Company, the National Alliance for Musical Theater Conference, and 54 Below. Anthony recently received the Vivace Award from the Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation and is currently an artist-in-residence at The Chelsea Factory.

As an actor, Anthony has been seen in the Public Theater’s As You Like It, Hercules, and Twelfth Night, as well as Prospect Theater Company’s Tamar of the River. Anthony’s work lives at the intersection of art, social justice, and community practice. In this spirit, he recently founded The Fire Ensemble as a home to develop his work and to share the joy of singing in community.

Matt Joslyn
Board Chair
Amanda Franklin
Board Director
Mei Ann Teo
Board Director
Donald Borror
Board Director
Donya K. Washington
Board Director

More about the ensemble

As part of a multiyear residency, this mass choir will invite community members to rehearse, workshop, and perform in transformative large-scale music theater works and rituals rooted in predominantly Black musical styles including gospel, R&B, and musical theater. In the group’s inaugural year, The Shed will host two 10-week sessions (in the spring and fall), each culminating in a one-night-only performance offered to the general public for free. Although performances will be moments of culmination and expanding the circle of sharing, the emphasis of the project will be on the process, and on the space and community being built through the weekly gatherings.

Troy Anthony first joined The Shed’s family of artists as part of the inaugural cohort of Open Call artists. When the pandemic delayed the presentation of his work, he collaborated with JJJJJerome Ellis on a digital performance as part of the Up Close series. In summer 2021, Anthony presented his Open Call project, The Revival: It Is Our Duty, in celebration of Juneteenth.

Thank you to our partners

The Fire Ensemble is supported by

The creation of new work at The Shed is generously supported by the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund and the Shed Commissioners. Major support for live productions at The Shed is provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Shed is connected by