Young Virtuoso Comforted

After bringing her audience to tears, 7th-grade violin virtuoso Emily Adji needed a hug and some light-hearted words whispered in her ear. Fortunately for her, New Haven’s mayor was standing beside her — and delivered the goods.

Emily’s performance, and Mayor John DeStefano’s unscripted accompaniment, took place Thursday morning at the official dedication (version number two or three, depending how you count) of the rebuilt pre-K‑8 Davis Street Arts & Academics Interdistrict Magnet School in upper Westville.

Asked what words of comfort the mayor employed after her bravura if exhausting playing, Emily said, ​“He was making jokes. He asked if there was pizza for lunch. He said he liked pizza. He made me feel better.”

Emily Adji’s rendition of a Vivaldi concerto was part of the official program at the event and gripped hundreds of staff, students, and alumni who had gathered in the expansive new gymnasium. It highlighted a core arts curriculum that animates Davis, one of the city’s most successful ​“tier-one” schools, which first ​“debuted” its new digs at a ribbon cutting on April 25. (Click here for a story of that debut, which featured a homecoming at the site of the original 1918 school building, which had been demolished in 2009 to make way for the $48.1 million rebuilding.

With its oddly endearing columns, like squat bowling pins standing sentry before the front facade, the new building is the 34th school constructed from the ground up or rehabilitated under New Haven’s $1.5 billion citywide school construction program.

(Click here for story about the Comer method, one of the ways Davis’s hard working staff has all but eliminated the achievement gap.)

The event also place amid the backdrop of the campaign for the Sept. 13 Democratic mayoral primary. DeStefano has touted the school rebuilding program as well as his new school reform program in the campaign. His mayor’s opponents have responded that while new buildings are impressive, what goes inside them is less so.

“We do these dedications to point out that facilities matter. If there’s ever a solution to violence and economic growth, it’s because of places like Davis,” the mayor said in his remarks Thursday.

In the official release accompanying the event, schools spokesman Christopher Hoffman quotes the mayor saying: ​“New buildings like Davis Street are just the beginning. Education is the best violence reduction and economic development tool.”

Hoffman said there is ​“no connection between the official dedication and the election. [The dedication is] planned for months.”

After official greetings in Chinese, Spanish, and English delivered by students, the 21-member Davis band, including flutists Brianna Jenkins (left in photo) and Danae Rivers, serenaded under direction of William Fluker.

Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo hailed Fluker for having begun the music program at Davis 10 years ago in an ill-equipped basement room.

Now he has two brand-new music rooms along with new instruments for the entire band.

Mayo Announces Vote For DeStefano

Mayo said that DeStefano came to him 15 years ago and proposed rebuilding all the city’s schools. Mayo said he pooh-poohed the idea, and now here we are.

There are now just four schools left to be rebuilt under the program. They’re Hyde Leadership, New Haven Academy, High School in the Community, and Grant Head Start.

“I’m not telling you how to vote [next Tuesday], but I’m going to vote for him just to make sure those four are done,” Mayo said.

In addition to general music courses and a band, which starts as early as the second grade for students, the school has a chorus and specialized instruction in strings.

Music teacher Lindsay Krim showed off her room with six keyboards and six more on the way, along with a piano due to arrive soon. She teaches general music, chorus, a class for recorders, keyboarding, and music composition for the older kids among the school’s 524 pre-schoolers to eighth-graders.

One of her favorite aspects of the new music room is the sound system. She can put her iPad in and download any of the songs she wants the kids to hear.

Last year as the fifth-graders were studying the American Revolution in social studies, she staged with them a performance of ​“The 13 Colonies,” a kid musical by Ron Fink and John Heath.

This coming year the fifth-graders will be doing New England history and putting on ​“Connecticut, Something to Sing About,” another musical, the teaching of which is being integrated into the curriculum with the help of the new musical equipment.

Among those who toured after the ceremonies Thursday were 1941 Davis graduates Jim Broker (left in photo) and Ev Cassagneres.

Cassagneres said when he was a student there was no music offered at Davis, to his recollection. Broker said there were lots of Poles and Irish kids but ​“no blacks.”

Broker grew up right on Davis Street, sent his kids to the school, and still lives in the neighborhood. He walked over from his house on Lowin Avenue. He pronounced Davis’s transformation ​“wonderful.”