The Queer Big Apple Corps: Set Your Heart Ablaze

Set Your Heart Ablaze

Music from the Many Worlds of Japanese Anime

Henco Espag, Artistic Director, Queer Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band

Royden Ringer, Assistant Conductor

Jason Cannon, Executive Director

Set Your Heart Ablaze invites you into the bold, dreamy world of Japanese anime music. This concert brings together soaring melodies, driving rhythms, and lush orchestral colors that shine on their own—captivating die-hard fans and newbies alike.

We’re circling back to Studio Ghibli to feature four favorites we couldn’t fit into our first anime concert: the charm of Kiki’s Delivery Service, the stylish swagger of Porco Rosso, the soaring lyricism of The Wind Rises, and the ocean-sprayed joy of Ponyo. Alongside them, you’ll hear the jazz-cool brilliance of Cowboy Bebop, the iconic themes of Naruto and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the fiery intensity of Demon Slayer, the source of our concert’s title.

“If you are feeling disheartened, that you are somehow not enough… Set your heart ablaze. Dry your eyes and look ahead.” —Last words of Kyojuro Rengoku, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

ABOUT US

Since its formation in 1979, the Queer Big Apple Corps has represented the entire LGBTQIA+ community and brought “The Sound of Love & Joy” to audiences across the United States and Canada.

The Queer Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band has played Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully halls, and made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2009, the band’s 30th anniversary year. Over four decades, the band has shared the stage with such luminaries as Harvey Fierstein, Rita Moreno, Liz Calloway, Arthur Laurents, and Liz Smith. Not only has the band performed with the famous, it has performed for the famous: Kathy Najimy, Tony Shalhoub, Annette Bening, and Sutton Foster to name a few. A founding member of the Pride Bands Alliance, the Queer Big Apple Corps also performed with the Pride Bands Alliance massed band in both Inaugural Parades for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Chosen to perform in the 2022 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Queer Big Apple Corps Marching Band has received countless coveted “best band” awards in parades large and small from coast to coast. The band has been seen by millions of people around the world in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day broadcast, two Ticker Tape parades, in Pride events for the US Open, Brooklyn Nets, NY Knicks, and on the field for the NY Mets, and in 15-20 parades and street performances each year.

With more than 300 musicians, color guard, and band aides, the Queer Big Apple Corps proudly celebrated its 46th anniversary this fall, and plans on lifting the hearts of audiences in concert halls and on parade routes for decades to come.