Some Kind of Spark

Aside from its regular curriculum, New York's Juilliard School also offers a two-year program for inner-city kids ages 8-12. Director Ben Niles spent three years with several Music Advancement Program (MAP) students, including Pete, a soft-spoken charmer who plays the flute, and Ami, an ebullient bass player who sings with her church choir. Pete moved to the United States in the wake of the Haitian earthquake. Although he never played the flute before, Pete gets off to a good start, only to fall behind in the second year, because he had little time to practice over the summer. Ami takes inspiration from Grammy Award-winning singer and bass player Esperanza Spalding. Explaining her attraction to the stand-up bass, she says, "It's tall and I'm tall. It just says, 'I'm here'." Other subjects include Rahman (trombone), Kari (violin), and Alejandro (drums and percussion). Niles spends as much time with the kids at home as he does at school, offering insights into their challenges and extracurricular interests. In many ways, Some Kind of Spark plays like the opposite of the 2014 film Whiplash, where a music school teacher browbeats a student into greatness; here, the teachers can be stern, but are always aware that they are dealing with kids who will need encouragement in order to persevere and improve. At the end of the second year, the students must decide whether to audition for MAP's more rigorous third year. While not every student takes that step, it's clear that MAP has benefited all of them in lasting ways. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)