Frank Hansen, of Commack High School, practices what he teaches

This month Newsday will begin highlighting the passionate, engaging and innovative educators of Long Island in a new Teacher Spotlight feature. Nominate those who create curriculums that advance learning, leave lasting impacts on students for years to come or have received state or national recognition by sending details to [email protected].

Commack High School band teacher Frank Hansen sees his job as a collaboration with his students. Hansen, who will retire this summer after 28 years with the school, noted that some of his students have gone on to become professional musicians or music educators. Some have even played with him in Broadway orchestra pits, he said.

“Being a music teacher, you’re working side by side with these kids,” said Hansen, 62, of Babylon. “Even though you’re in charge and you’re up in front of the podium and you’re conducting the groups, you’re still kind of in it with them.”

Hansen’s career began when he was 14 years old and started playing gigs at jazz clubs like the now-closed Sonny’s Place in Seaford and Rampart Street in Port Washington, where he met famous jazz musicians who mentored him. “That was a very important part of my education,” said Hansen, who was a professional musician before switching to teaching. “I think of myself as a working musician.”

Hansen started teaching while at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he was required to teach according to the terms of his scholarship.

In 1985, he began working at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, where he’d eventually teach every music class it offered, from band to music theory, later reprising that role at Suffolk County Community College, where he will continue to teach at the Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood.

At Commack, Hansen began as an orchestra teacher in 1997 and helped develop its international baccalaureate and guitar ensemble programs. He currently helms the student ensemble the Jazz Messengers, the marching band, the concert orchestra, the string orchestra and the ICA (Independent Creative Arts) chamber orchestra.

Hansen and the Jazz Messengers have serenaded people arriving at the high school Friday mornings for years, said Carrie Lippenholtz, principal of Commack High School.

“He’s made such an impact on the students and staff,” Lippenholtz said.

And for the past two years, Hansen and members of his Jazz Messengers participated in a Thanksgiving event held at Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack, said Nicole Hopper, director of therapeutic recreation for the Commack facility.

“He truly brought joy to every single resident and staff member in the building,” she said.

One former student, Izzet Mergen, said Hansen always encouraged his students to engage in divergent thinking: approaching situations through various lenses, which inspires creative thinking.

“He’s a real artist who also teaches,” said Mergen, director of fine and performing arts for Northport-East Northport schools. “And he’s a real teacher who happens to be an artist.”