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Found: A Zopel gem in Portland
By Alex Fontana
In 1925, the Radio City Rockettes were created! Sometime shortly thereafter,
Rose Zopel became one, in addition to being a silent movie star. Later
on, Rose had a son, Paul Zopel. Paul became a jazz musician in Chicago
and when his wife was pregnant with their first born, he moved the
Chicago sound to Wisconsin. As things progressed, Paul became a musical
director while helping to raise his family. It is Allison Zopel, the
youngest of Paul’s four children, all accomplished jazz musicians,
who has a very special story in this long lineage of talent.
When Allison was two years old, she started practicing with two instruments
a day, plus gymnastics. So, as she was learning to walk and talk, she
was also learning to tumble and play music, a parental requirement.
Eventually, she practiced with just about every musical instrument
there is, with a continuing passion for the piano and cello, although
her father wished her to focus on upright bass.
As a member of the family’s Zopel Jazz Quartet, she started singing
and playing jazz professionally at age 15. At age 17, Allison started
composing for the piano, even as she maintained first chair cello in
school.
At age 20, after completing a degree as a licensed massage therapist
with specialization in Reiki, Allison visited places such as Costa
Rica, the Appalachians and Canada, eventually moving to Alaska with
friends.
Around Christmas time, Allison returned to Wisconsin to visit family,
where she was involved in a serious car accident that left her gradually
slipping into a coma. Based on the Rancho Los Amigos scale for coma,
which ranges from one to eight, where one is a complete coma on a machine,
all the way to level eight which is totally responsive, Allison became
a “two.”
A level two coma is defined as, “when a person reacts inconsistently
and non-purposefully to stimuli in a nonspecific manner. Reflexes are
limited and often the same, regardless of stimuli presented.” Allison
was not on a machine; she was however in pain, could hardly move, passing
out at any time and unable to concentrate or hold even the simplest
of thoughts at times. This paralyzing state left her incapacitated
for two years!
The trials experienced by friends and family, who provided constant
day-to-day support, physically, emotionally and financially, is amazing
to say the least. In and out of chronic pain, Allison was ready to
just have the pain stop. Then she reached a turning point when someone
told her about the “Universal Law of Fairness,” which states, “To
the extent of suffering a person experiences, so shall they experience
the same amount of joy.” Allison responded, “Then I’m
due for one heck of a rainbow.”
One of Allison’s motor skill exercises was to practice piano.
At this time, “there was no feeling for the music, it was just
something I did,“ she says. Then one day her mother heard Allison
laughing hysterically. Allison could feel the music of the piano through
the foot pedal. She still required another two years to recover, during
which 12 of the 14 songs on Music from Within were composed.
"
The music that comes through me is an expression of my soul," says
Allison. "And the simplicity of the music, I hope and feel, will
give people the time and space that we all need in order to slow down,
and let what's inside of us truly emerge." - A. Zopel
This writer was first able to meet Allison a few weeks ago at the
Five Senses Network Dinner; a private association of artists and
entertainers
originally based in California, where each member performs or lectures
on their expertise. It was here that everyone experienced the presence
of Zopel. To see her, it is almost impossible to imagine that this
petite young lady, who looks like she just finished high school,
could have been in a coma for four years. As Chef Gregory states, “She
looks and has the aura of an angel, experiencing pure joy by just being
here in the now.” Even blind musician Louie Ray commented on
feeling her calm sincerity in everything she did and the relaxing nature
of her piano work.
Due to the nature of her injury, travel with altitude changes in
excess of 4,000 feet are no longer possible. This requires her to
take a 3,000-mile
journey around the Rocky Mountains in order to go from Wisconsin
to Oregon. It’s a trip that took over a month and that she will
endure again - this time via Canada to return temporarily to Wisconsin
for a friend’s wedding later in the year. Confirming this is
her ever-present wrist altimeter.
As calm as Ms. Zopel is, she is also a working dynamo. After emerging
from her coma like the butterfly from a chrysalis, Allison, within
one year, has moved across country, been featured in the Oregonian - March 2004, Glamour magazine - January 2005, Wausau
Daily Herald - January 2005, recorded, produced and distributed her Music
from Within CD, which is available nationally via CD Baby or Amazon.com.
She is
working on a second CD available sometime in the fall, a book concerning
coma experiences, website programming, music lessons and consultations
on productions with other artists. The Montel Williams show in N.Y.
also wanted to do a special on her but required air travel that nixed
the idea. Where is Oprah when you need her?
If that was not enough, Allison’s healing piano music continues
to be featured at the PDX airport in C-concourse through security,
throughout this summer, with future gigs coming up at the H20 in June.
For further info you can go to either www.musicfromwithin.com for her
piano work or to www.zopeljazz.org for jazz.
Allison has been inspired by many great musicians through her lifetime;
some of those who have inspired the music on this album are: George
Winston, Jim Brickman, David Lantz, Michelle Tumes and Sarah McLachlan.
In hearing her music and now knowing her story, perhaps it will
be some of us that are inspired to keep looking for our rainbows.
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