Pianist-Composer Mana-Zucca
Biography of the American Pianist, Actress, Singer and Composer
A brief look at the life and career of a child piano prodigy who became a famous composer and whose prolific works totaled over 1000.
Born Augusta Zuckerman in New York City on December 25, 1890 ( or 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894 or 1895, depending on which biography you read), was a child piano prodigy who performed as soloist in the Beethoven Piano Concerto #1 with the New York Symphony Orchestra at the age of 8. Her studies at the piano were with Ferruccio Busoni, Leopold Godowsky and Alexander Lambert, and she was a pupil of Hermann Spielter for composition. She began composing at an early age and was giving regular piano recitals by the time she was a teenager.
She married department store tycoon Irwin Cassel and gave birth to her only child ("my greatest creation") Marwin in 1922. The name was formed by the first 2 letters in her name and the last 4 from Irwin's. Irwin died in 1971, ending a happy marriage that lasted 49 years. The marriage was also one of musical collaboration at times, as Irwin wrote the words for Mana's most popular song, "I Love LIfe."
Musical Theatre
Another area in which Mana-Zucca shone was musical theatre, and she made her stage debut acting and singing in the soprano role in Lehar's "Countess of Luxembourg" in 1914. Following this appearance she starred in many operettas in Europe and America.
For several years Mana-Zucca was the grande dame of music in Miami, Florida, and at one time had a concert hall, "Mazica," which could accommodate an audience of 300 people and where she presented more than 500 concerts over the years. These concerts would feature guest soloists and many very fine artists performed there, including Efrem Zimbalist, Mischa Elman, Jan Peerce and pianist Jose Iturbi.
Her Compositions
Mana-Zucca's compositions numbered over 1,000 and included a 4-act opera, Hypatica, a 1-act Chinese opera, a violin concerto, a piano concerto, a piano trio and hunderds of songs. Mana-Zucca was the soloist in the recording of her Piano Concerto.
During World War II she gave many war bond concerts and succeeded in raising nearly a million dollars for the war effort.
Mana died on March 8, 1981in Florida, and at the time of her death, her son Marwin was left in charge of her memorabilia and papers worth approximately $50,000, which finally found their way into a collection.
For further reading about pianists see: Pianist Elaine Greenfield, PIanist Andreas Thiel, and Pianist Rudolf Firkusny.
Source
Personal letters from Mana-Zucca to the author of this article.
