MANKATO — For Nafiso Fiqi, the case is closed.

She’s a fiddle fan.

“I loved the violin,” Fiqi said. “It was my favorite.”

Along with about 20 fellow English-language learners in Mankato schools, Fiqi spent the past several weeks participating in an experimental music literacy program that has gained national interest.

The four-day-a-week program included singing instruction as well as lessons on the violin, recorder and drums. The hope was that music would stimulate gains in other academic areas, especially language. A showcase for parents and friends this week was attended by curious musicians and educators from across Minnesota and even caught the eye of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in New York.

And to that jury of parents, musicians and educators, Larry Scripp also closed his own case.

An expert on the effects of music on academic achievement and the chair of the music education department at the New England Conservatory, Scripp’s aim is to prove that an integrated music program can benefit all students academically — even those who are still learning the English language.

His most compelling evidence were two dozen young musicians, of various ages and ethnicities, playing Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major” alongside five members of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.

“Syntax, language, math, linguistics,” said Scripp, becoming excited the way academicians do when discussing the underpinnings of their work, “they all exist in music.”

But his most convincing evidence was more empirical.

At the beginning of the program, students were given a test that measured about 20 different academic areas as interpreted through music literacy. Students then participated for either five or 10 weeks, and then retested at the end of the program.

Scripp said the data must still be analyzed, but a cursory review shows most students made gains in at least some academic areas. And among the 10-week group, Scripp said, gains were even more pronounced.

“Think of holding a vowel sound while you sound out a word — that’s singing, and it’s also spelling and intonation,” said Scripp, just a few hours before hopping a flight back to the East Coast where he will use the data to continue developing a curriculum that integrates classroom content areas into the teaching of music.

“It’s the synchronicity of multiple things.”

Beginning more than a month ago, Scripp and a handful of partners — including the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and the MARDAG and Rockefeller Foundations — initiated the experimental program with students in the Mankato Area School District’s summer Walkabout program.

Students learned music on a modified scale that, instead of the traditional staff, looks like an x-y plane. The matrix, as it is called, teaches students to read left-to-right and decode symbols (founding elements of English-language acquisition). Teachers can use the matrix to show students how to compose music, play by ear and play pieces backward, which Scripp said are integral components of comprehension that build foundations for other types of learning.

During warm-up exercises, students count to 40 while practicing the right way to hold their violin bows. During drumming lessons, instructors use pictures of animals and the number of syllables in their names to build a drum beat. Instructors quiz students on note and pitch identification and had them keep journals where they wrote their own music.

Alex Barnett, a program instructor and performer with the Mankato Symphony Orchestra, said his students’ improvements in English language skills were noticeable.

“The overall improvement in kids’ musical ability and ability to communicate was unbelievable,” he said. “Now, there is almost no language barrier.”

Les Koppendrayer, principal of Franklin Elementary, said he was excited with the program’s results and that it “really gave kids a chance to shine.” But he also said the program would be difficult to do on a more long-term scale.

The curriculum requires extensive staff training to implement because the matrix method differs widely from the traditional one teachers are accustomed to using. And it would likely require more extra time in the school day — a luxury Koppendrayer said schools don’t have.

“There is no doubt this program would have an impact academically,” he said. “We know there are a lot of things we could do to raise achievement, but we can’t just can’t afford to do them.”

Even so, Koppendrayer said the school will try to continue the program with its after-school Walkabout program during the school year.