Zamora, who
recently favored Pinehurst Trace residents with a short concert at their
belated St. Patrick’s Day dinner, tells The Pilot that she lived in
several places while growing up.
“But I consider North Carolina home,” she says. “It was the last move
my family made.”
Zamora’s deafness wasn’t diagnosed until she began school. She began
lipreading classes and gradually discovered that her inability to
understand the others around her was not the confusion of every child. She
is able to hear many sounds and has developed a sensitivity to define what
she is able to hear.
“My ears shut down with almost any amount of loud sound,” she says.
“For chamber music, I memorize each part for each instrument, spend time
with the other players to get a feel for their body language and stylistic
tendencies and just listen by deduction to stay unified.”
But Zamora hasn’t allowed her deafness to stop her in her quest to
perform.
“I have always been interested in music,” she says.
She received her studio training from pianists coming from a variety of
traditions, including Einar Steen- Nokleberg, Adele Marcus, Marvin
Blickenstaff and Walter Hautzig. She has studied at such prestigious
schools as the Hochschule fur Musik in Germany, Juilliard School in New
York City and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Md.
After a short period teaching piano at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, she returned to her graduate studies at Arizona State
University.
Zamora loves all types of classical music and is hesitant to select a
favorite composer or piece of music.
“I probably enjoy playing Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann the most,” she
says, “but then you also have to add Liszt and Chopin as well as
Prokofiev, Berg and Bartok as well as Mozart and Bach!”
She prefers playing large works or entire sets of short works because
of their storytelling or structural capacity.
Her current favorite contemporary composer is Paul Schoenfield.
“I did a trio of his a year or so ago,” she says. “Since then I’ve
heard concerts of his music and enjoy his diversity and fabulous sense of
energy.”
She also enjoys listening to CDs of other pianists and performers.
“Richard Goode is my favorite pianist; I just heard him in a recital
two or three weeks ago,” she says. “Mitsuko Uchida ranks right along side
and YoYoMa is also tremendous. These three express music with an
exceptional depth.”
Zamora says she did face difficulties in being accepted because of her
“handicap.”
“I hid it at all costs,” she says. “Once it was revealed — and it
always was — I was not accepted. It was better for people to think I was
crazy, a drug addict or ‘whacko’ than for it to be known that I was
‘handicapped.’”
In 1998, she received the Career in the Arts grant from the J.F.
Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., her first as a
“uniquely-abled artist.” She now performs recitals and holds workshops to
promote an awareness of the accomplishments and achievements of those with
disabilities.
Zamora offers a word of advice to others who have any sort of handicap
or disability.
“Never give up,” she says. “Learn from each experience and use it to
find a way.”
