Students performing during arrival in the lobby aim to start each Friday on a good note.
The morning lobby performances are usually performed by a small group called the Jazz Messengers, which consists of about 5-10 students. The organizer of this group and the lobby performances is orchestra teacher Dr. Frank Hansen. He chooses the students according to their passion for music, while recognizing who is able to work as a team. Dr. Hansen came up with the idea for the lobby performance about 25 years ago.
“The idea is to kind of give [the musicians] an authentic experience that’s very similar to what I do […] almost every night. I’m a professional jazz musician so I play in a lot of jazz clubs and concerts where we do the same sort of thing. We really don’t prepare too much, we don’t have too many rehearsals, we just get up and we just start to play the music,” said Hansen.
This opportunity enables his students to get an experience of the real music industry. It helps them to learn the skill of improvisation and teamwork. The students who play in the lobby are not only from the group called Jazz Messengers, but also from all different kinds of music groups. He picks vocalists that are apart of chorus, along with instrumentalists from the orchestra and band.
“I think the best part for me is being able to play with my friends and play pieces that we enjoy and I think performing holiday music is just more fun…” said musician and Freshman Helen P., over text.
The performances also help the students get together with their friends and have a good time while playing songs that they enjoy.
“We play [music] from the classic jazz style and genre, so we pretty much pick songs from the American Songbook, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart and we also pick a lot of classical compositions from people like Benny Golson or Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, so between those that’s where we get, you know there’s a lot of classic jazz music that we play,” said Hansen.
The students play many different genres of music, from jazz to classical and even holiday music. These types of music are specifically picked to make sure the audience has a good day once they hear it.
“Performing in the lobby helped me grow as a musician by making me pay attention more to other parts of the group and listening more for specific instruments to help find more balance in our sound. In a band there are so many people and instruments that if one is out of tune or messes up it will not mess up the sound of the whole band. In a smaller group there are less people and instruments so everyone in the group is way more important. This taught me to pay more attention to the small details,” said Freshman Madison W. via text.
Performing in the lobby helps students convey their music as a group. It also helps students who want to pursue music as a career experience teamwork and follow directions, while playing an instrument.
“People come in with a smile on their faces, we get a lot of reactions from teachers and students, they come up to us or they come up to me and say ‘I love it that you guys play every Friday it just puts a smile on my face’ so for nothing else we just try to give a little happiness to the Commack High School community,” said Hansen.
Both the students and Hansen continue this event because of the impact that it leaves on the people who walk into school everyday.
“I like the lobby performances in the mornings. When there is a performance, I always try to stay in the lobby as long as possible until I need to go to class to listen to the music and support the musicians. I also think the performances help the musicians who are performing to get more comfortable performing and have more exposure to what a career in music can look like. Orchestrating the performances is a lot of responsibility because there is not much scheduled time to practice or specific songs or pre assigned groups. So if you really want to do it you need to put the whole thing together,” said Madison.
There isn’t a lot of time to prepare for the performances, however, the students involved enjoy this opportunity.
“I first want to say thank you so much to my group members who performed with me as well as the students who stayed and listened,” said Madison.◼️
