In the studio
Free2Rock Academy
Voice, guitar, drums and bass, then songwriting and audio and video production. The house band, Solar Flair, plays area events.
Chapter 01
The only music program of its kind
Free2Rock Academy is the music program at ProjectFREE, the not-for-profit on 51st Street South in Gulfport, Florida. ProjectFREE describes it as the only music program of its kind, and the idea behind it is simple. Adults with diverse abilities learn voice, guitar, drums and bass, and they learn them in order to play for people. Nobody here is practicing for a drawer. Members are musicians, and a musician's job is to get on a stage and play the song.
Music is not tucked into a corner of the week. The daily running order at ProjectFREE, Monday to Friday, ends with music at 12:30, right after lunch at noon. That slot is where members work on their voices and instruments, and it gives everyone a regular place to build skill. Founder Kim Costanzo started ProjectFREE in 2009 around the arts and performance, so music was part of the plan from the first day, not something added later.
Solar Flair playing outdoors in matching tie-dye shirts, with a drum kit, guitar, bass and microphone
Learning the instruments, then writing the songs
The instruments come first. Voice, guitar, drums and bass are the four the academy teaches, which is a full rock lineup. A member can arrive wanting to sing, to play bass, or to keep time on the drums, and each of those is a real path. Playing in a band also teaches what any ensemble needs: listening to the person next to you, holding the beat when something slips, and coming in on cue. Those are musical skills and they are people skills too.
Songwriting and audio and video production sit alongside the playing. Members are not limited to other people's songs, and they learn how a recording and a video get made. The roots of this go back a long way. From 2009 to 2013 the group ran a public access TV program, New England's got Special Talent, out of Waterford, Connecticut, featuring musicians with diverse abilities from all over that state. The team hopes to bring the idea back as a podcast.
Chapter 03
Solar Flair on stage
Solar Flair is the Free2Rock house band, an alternative rock group made up of ProjectFREE members. It plays area events, and the photos from those gigs show what the academy is for: a drum kit set up outdoors, a microphone stand, guitar and bass, a band in matching tie-dye shirts, and people watching from a few feet away. That is the whole point of learning an instrument. You get it in front of an audience.
Kim Costanzo, the founder, says in her Google review that Solar Flair took runner-up in Best of the Bay from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, second place from about 70,000 nominees. Solar Flair also has music out. Its single Love Is My Religion is credited to Coley featuring Solar Flair and Shevonne, and a release called Free to Rock is listed on DistroKid for anyone who wants to hear the band without waiting for a gig.
To ask about a place in Free2Rock Academy, call the team at (727) 603-0595, or use the Apply to Perform form on the ProjectFREE site. The programs sit within Florida APD Life Skills services, and ProjectFREE does not publish fees, so the call is also how you find out how a place would be paid for. Ask Kim Costanzo's team what a first week would look like.
Solar Flair, the Free2Rock house band, was runner-up for Best of the Bay from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, per founder Kim Costanzo.