The Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band opens its 41st concert season on Monday, Sept. 14, with a free 7:30 p.m. performance titled “It's Great to Be Back!” at Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium on the Chaffey High School campus. The concert opens with the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the national anthem, and closes with a new medley called “Pop and Rock Legends: Chicago.”
According to the Daily Bulletin, admission to the show, held at 1245 N. Euclid Ave. in Ontario, is free, continuing a longstanding tradition for the ensemble. The band is directed by Pat Arnold, who is also set to take the stage himself, performing tenor saxophone on “Moondance” and singing a new arrangement of “Mack the Knife.” Other featured soloists include clarinetist Neil Vargas performing “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere,” vocalist Joscelyn Washington singing “Over the Rainbow,” and Skip Cain delivering a couple of swinging tunes, per the same report.
Guest Musicians and Community Ties
The season opener also brings in outside talent: a trumpet trio from the Pomona Concert Band, made up of Steve Collins, Chris Northrop, and Hector Aguilar, will perform “Bugler's Holiday.” That collaboration reflects a long relationship between the two organizations, as the Pomona Concert Band, founded in 1947 by G. Stanton Selby, is currently directed by Linda Taylor and Jorge Garcia and remains a neighboring Inland Empire musical institution in its own right.
Show Band Assistant Director David Schaafsma, who joined the ensemble in 2003, brings his own deep roots in local civic music. He previously founded and directed the Sound Machine of the Inland Empire Youth Band, which led the return of Ontario's All-States July 4th Parade down Euclid Avenue in 1991, according to the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band. Schaafsma also plays tuba in both the Show Band and the Pomona Concert Band, and he shares assistant director duties with David Grasmick, per the Daily Bulletin.
Concert-Night Details and Pre-Show Tradition
Before the main performance, the Woodwind Celebration Ensemble will perform in the auditorium lobby starting at 7 p.m., with coffee and cookies offered to concertgoers, the Daily Bulletin reports. Pre-concert lobby recitals typically begin 30 minutes before the main show, according to the Show Band's own materials, giving early arrivals a taste of chamber music before the full ensemble takes the stage.
The band's roots trace back four decades to founder R. Jack Mercer, who tried to remain retired in 1986 when former musicians urged him to organize the band. Mercer had spent 27 years leading Chaffey High School's band, including turns directing the 200-member Marching Tigers in nationally televised NFL halftime shows for the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers in the 1960s, and he established the 1962 Chaffey Tournament of Bands, described by the Show Band's own history as Southern California's oldest competitive marching event. Mercer died in 2014 at age 91, after directing the community band for nearly three decades.
A Municipally Backed, Open-Enrollment Ensemble
The City of Ontario provides annual municipal budget support to the Show Band in exchange for the ensemble presenting 10 free public community concerts each year, maintaining the free-admission model that has become central to its identity. The group performs monthly concerts at Chaffey High School and other community venues, and it operates under an open-enrollment, non-audition policy that draws adult and student musicians from at least two dozen Southern California communities, including Pasadena, Riverside, and Redlands. Rehearsals take place weekly, from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays, at Chaffey High School, and the Daily Bulletin notes that both adult and student musicians are invited to join.
The ensemble also runs an annual Jack Mercer Brass Scholarship program honoring Ontario-Montclair sixth- through eighth-grade brass students, giving recipients the chance to perform live alongside the Ontario Community Band, according to the Ontario-Montclair School District. The Show Band's sponsorship base includes numerous community supporters, among them legacy donors Richard Ortiz and Patricia Bourland, per the Daily Bulletin.
A Restored New Deal-Era Venue
Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium itself carries its own historical weight. Built in 1939 for $444,000, partly funded by a $199,800 federal Public Works Administration grant, the venue replaced an earlier structure after the 1932 Long Beach earthquake forced California school districts to rebuild unreinforced masonry facilities, according to the Chaffey High School Alumni Association. The original auditorium seated 2,400 and was rededicated in July 2019, with digital photography, mural replication, and decorative painting described in historical materials.
As the Show Band prepares to fill that landmark space again, the season-opening program offers a snapshot of what the ensemble has represented for four decades: a free, community-driven musical tradition that stretches from Sousa marches to modern pop tributes like the upcoming Chicago medley. Doors open with lobby entertainment at 7 p.m., with the main concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 14.
