Alumni in Action: Alan Davis

When Alan Davis was a teenager, he never imagined his pathway of purpose would lead him back to Overland High School.

“I never envisioned myself working in the district or inside Overland,” the 2019 OHS graduate said. “It is an odd feeling to walk the hallways and work in one of the classrooms, but it’s fulfilling work that serves the community.”

That work is also something Davis never imagined when he was a student. He is now one of two musical instrument repair technicians in the new Cherry Creek Schools’ instrument repair shop, located at Overland High School. The shop serves CCSD schools, students, and families, repairing brass, woodwind, and orchestral instruments, as well as percussion and electronic instruments.

“It’s a very fulfilling job and very fulfilling career,” Davis said. “Being able to repair a lot of instruments and get them right back into students’ hands so they can hopefully discover the joy of music and be creative and expressive with their instrument, it’s very satisfying.”

Davis has always loved music and was a student musician throughout his time in Cherry Creek Schools. He took his father’s old saxophone and joined the band at Meadow Point Elementary School, which met in the morning before school started. At Prairie Middle School, he played in both the concert and jazz bands. At Overland, Davis was a member of the jazz and marching bands, where he was also a section leader.

“Music, the creativity really inspires me,” Davis said. “You can just sit down with your instrument and do whatever you want. It’s a great form of expression.”

After graduating from Overland, Davis headed to the University of Colorado at Boulder to study music education, thinking he would become a music teacher and band director. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, giving Davis an unexpected opportunity to re-evaluate his career plans.

“It gave me time to reflect and see if education was really how I wanted to impact music,” he recalls. “I got connected with a band instrument repair technician here locally. I started talking with him to learn about the craft, to see if I liked that kind of work and if it was something I could make a living at.”

Davis ended up transferring to Minnesota State College SE, one of only three schools in the U.S. that offers a band instrument repair program. He earned an associate’s degree, then returned to Aurora and reconnected with Ryan Monarch, his band director at Overland. Monarch had been talking with the district about starting an instrument repair shop, as there aren’t many left in the Denver area that can fix instruments owned by students or schools. In fact, the 93-year-old Kolacny Music Store was in the process of closing in late summer of 2023, so the district purchased the store’s tools and equipment, and set up a temporary shop in a mobile building at Prairie Middle School that fall. It was there for 11 months, before moving to a permanent space at Overland in 2024.

Now Davis and his co-worker, Jeff Eisold, repair band and orchestra instruments for schools and the 25,000 band and orchestra students spread across CCSD’s 108-square miles. They’ve saved the district more than $86,000 in instrument repair and replacement costs.

Davis says the work requires a unique skill set.

“As a band instrument repair technician, I have to be a problem solver, a mechanic at times, and an acoustician at other times. I have to make tools,” he explained. He adds that growing up in Cherry Creek Schools prepared him well for the challenges he faces. “The district gave me a very strong foundation in all disciplines of education and there was a strong emphasis to develop critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and a lot of technical skills that help me excel in the work I do today.”

That work allows him to maintain his own musical skills.

“In order to be a technician, you have to be able to play-test all the instruments,” he said. “I’m no savant or maestro on any of them, but I can play-test all of them, and every now and then I pull out my own saxophone and play around.”

While Davis didn’t expect to be back at Overland as an adult, he’s happy his pathway brought him back to his alma mater, where he can do something he loves and make a positive difference for budding musicians, their families, and their schools.

He encourages those students, and all CCSD students, to try different things and to embrace change, so they discover what they’re truly meant to be and to do.

“Take a chance and experience it,” he said. “Find something you’re passionate about and pursue it.”

Learn more about the CCSD instrument repair shop in these stories from CBS4 and Aurora TV.