March concert to feature 1980s music

The Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band will present “Music of the ’80s and ARISE” 7:30 p.m. Monday at Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium on the campus of Chaffey High School, 1245 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario.

The free concert will feature hits from the 1980s and a performance by the ARISE ensemble directed by E. Martene Craig.

Members of ARISE, an ensemble of singers and bell ringers, come from several churches in the Inland Empire. The group’s repertoire includes spirituals, hymns, gospel songs, folk and show tunes, plus country, patriotic and seasonal music, and ARISE performs in venues including churches, retirement homes, concert halls and prisons, according to a news release.

In the Monday concert, ARISE will perform “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Rolling in the Deep” and will join the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band in “You’ll Never Walk Alone/climb Ev’ry Mountain” and “Love in Any Language.”

The ensemble also will give a preconcert performance on stage from 7 to 7:20 p.m.

The concert also will feature the return of guest vocalist Jana “Gigi” Garner, who has performed with choirs and rock bands and has sung music including jazz, swing, blues and contemporary church music. She has also composed and produced short songs and videos for meditation, as well as original blues tunes, according to the news release.

Garner is a former voice-over artist and radio announcer and is cofounder of the T Street Band. She also sings with the Music Masters Big Band in Upland, performing jazz, swing, jive and torch songs from the 1920s to the 1960s.

She will perform four songs from the 1980s, “99 Red Balloons,” “Down Under,” “Pride” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

Band members who will be featured as soloists are flutist and oboe player Dana Rawlings, in an arrangement of the Whitney Houston song “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” and trombonist Stephen Cavaretta,

in “Drive,” a 1984 song by The Cars.

The band also will play “I’m Alright” from the movie “Caddyshack” and the Michael Jackson song “Billie Jean.”

Narrators will be George Matamala, principal of Chaffey Adult School, and Charles Uhalley, a retired Chaffey Joint Union High School District school board member.

The concert will be broadcast on local Ontario cable Channel 3.

The Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band, founded in 1985 by R. Jack Mercer, is directed by Gabe Petrocelli and assistant directors David Schaafsma and Pat Arnold. Members represent communities throughout Southern California.

The band rehearses 7 p.m. Mondays at Chaffey High School and presents monthly concerts on the Chaffey High campus. Adult musicians and students are invited to participate.

For information and to donate to the Friends of the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band, go to showband.net.