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A Family That Plays Together

Tribune photo by JAMIE PILARCZYK

Mom Sibyl Lazzara belts out a song while during a recent practice at Rock School, where students from second grade through adulthood are introduced to the rock band experience.

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK

jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

TAMPA - Plugging in amplifiers and tuning their instruments, the Lazzara family prepared to jam during a recent practice at Rock School.

Nine-year-old Libby loosened up the keys on the keyboard; 11-year-old Bobby Jr. played a few riffs on his electric guitar; and mom Sibyl belted out Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You" on the microphone.

All that was missing was dad, Bobby Sr., who was held up at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he is chief of cardiac surgery.

Filling in for him on the drums was Lee Ahlin, director of Rock School. On bass was Mimi Boss, a 12-year-old from Riverview who was paired with the family band in need of a bassist. As for the Lazzara's youngest children, Isabella, 4, and Zoe Sophia, 1, fun still entails a wider array of sporadic, robust activities than simply playing a tune - such as unplugging an amp cord.

A program of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Patel Conservatory, Rock School was launched in 2004 as a way to introduce students from second-grade through adulthood to the rock band experience. Ahlin had directed the school at Paragon Music from 1989 until 1997 and was excited to bring it to the conservatory when approached by Wendy Leigh, vice president of education and humanities.

"The program took off," Ahlin said.

People come for an audition and are paired in what Ahlin compares to a "complicated dating service," mixing those with "Gothy" tastes with those who love Madonna, and figuring out if they mind working outside their peer group.

The program often draws mother-daughter and father-son teams, Ahlin said, but the Lazzaras break the mold as the band with the most members from the same gene pool.

Professional instructors guide students through 12-week band sessions with the goal of performing for an audience at the end-of-session Rock School Blowout, scheduled this year for Saturday.

"Half of the people in Rock School are just testing it out," Ahlin said. "The other half are serious about a career in music."

The Lazzaras have some of both.

Bobby Lazzara Sr. is passionate about medicine, his first love, although rock-and-roll comes in a close second. While dating, he and his wife used to stay up late into the night playing Led Zepplin songs. The couple have transformed their Golfview home's living room into a sound stage and studio where the family plays together.

"It's the greatest thing in the world as a father," he said of the family's band, 5 o'clock Freak Out. "You become this real focused team, this unit, and you get to see a different side of your wife and kids than when you are just hanging around the house. It's been a wonderful experience on multiple levels."

Sibyl Lazzara is an actress just getting back into the scene after raising their four children. She takes voice lessons at Patel and has discovered a desire to write lyrics. She hopes the family someday will perform her music.

Bobby Jr. has a gift for guitar - one his parents and Ahlin said could take him far. That would suit the St. John's Episcopal middle-schooler, who said he would like to be a professional musician.

What he might leave behind is the family gig: "It's kind of cool but embarrassing at the same time," he said.

Libby, a Berkeley Preparatory School third-grader, said she is having fun at Rock School.

"It's nice working together as a family," said the fan of slow pop music who gets so nervous she forgets lyrics during performances such as Saturday's Rock School Blowout.

"But it's just fun to play."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Summer Sign-Up Splash, a free event featuring activities for children and adults such as sample classes, face-painting and live music performed on the Riverwalk by nine bands from the conservatory's Rock School program.

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the concert beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. W.C. MacInnes Place

CONTACT: (813) 222-1002 or

www.patelconservatory.org

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661. Keyword: Rock School, to hear the family perform and see a slideshow.

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