Mana-Zucca

Corte Swearingen
23 hours ago
6 min read

Once upon a Christmas Day in New York, a little girl named Gussie (also called Augusta, Gizella—depends on who was talking) Zuckermann burst into the world. Born December 25, 1885 (some places say 1887, because she liked a little mystery around her). She was the youngest of six kids, and more than anything, she wanted music—real music, not the toy-piano kind. At age three, when she discovered her toy piano didn’t have F-sharp (she couldn’t find the black key!), she hollered, “This piano’s no good!” and reportedly even smashed it. That was Mana-Zucca’s first protest for musical honesty.

Childhood & Rising Star

Her parents (Polish immigrants) must’ve been shaking their heads—but also amazed. Gussie got piano lessons early: a neighbor (Patotnikoff), then Platon Brounoff, then the big names. By age seven or eight she was performing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with big orchestras.

She spent some time in Europe (Berlin, London), where she studied with people like Josef Weiss and even took master classes from the great Ferruccio Busoni. Those years sharpened her ears, expanded her styles, and made her someone people talked about when they said “child prodigy.”

Mana-Zucca Becomes a Personality

Here comes the fun part. She didn’t just play music—she lived it with flair.

She changed her name: “Mana-Zucca” isn’t just exotic; it’s her name Zuckermann flipped and twisted to sound magical.
She liked to mess with people’s expectations. Reviewers couldn’t always pin down her nationality. Some assumed she was Italian, or Hungarian, or something exotic. Maybe that was her doing (or just good luck).
Her home in Miami, “Mazica Hall,” was more than a house—it was a concert hall for the community. Imagine: big living room, two grand pianos, and famous artists mingling with up-and-comers, regular home concerts filled with local audience. More than 500 concerts were held there over the years.

There’s a hilarious anecdote: Once a plane had engine trouble approaching Denver, and when the pilot announced the issue, one passenger started singing “Nearer My God to Thee.” Another passenger, more optimistic, started singing “I Love Life,” Mana-Zucca’s song. The plane landed safely, and a friend on board called Mana to report this. She laughed about it for years.

She collected over 200 miniature pianos (some porcelain, some wood) and kept other treasures in her Miami home, the kind of décor that suggests someone who saw beauty in details—little lamps, tapestries, bric-a-brac. Her house was elegant, charming, full of music even when no one was playing.

She often joked that people thought she was older than she was—because she started so young and had known so many “old people.” At age five she said she was friends with someone’s grandmother (who was seventy!), so people would say, “You were a friend of my grandmother?!” and she’d say, “Yes—I was five and she was seventy!”

Songwriting, Hits, and Not Just One Big Number

While she was classically trained and serious about her bigger compositions, Mana-Zucca also loved songs that people could sing, remember, enjoy. “I Love Life” (lyrics by her husband Irwin Cassel) became her signature tune. She had a few others people liked: Big Brown Bear, Honey Lamb, Time and Time Again.

But “I Love Life” has moments: the plane story above, people hearing it on radio, singing it when perhaps they needed something upbeat. It sums up her philosophy. She once said (in IAWM journal) that joy was everything to her; that she liked cheerful people more than gloomy ones, and that one happy person was worth a million gloomy ones.

Also, though many people associate her with her songs, she herself sometimes thought her instrumental or chamber works were more serious or more challenging—things like her cello-piano sonata. She had a pile of unpublished works that she thought might only become known after she was gone. But she kept writing anyway.

Later Years, Honors & Final Curtain

As she grew older:

Her husband Irwin Cassel died in 1971, after nearly 50 years of marriage. Their collaboration had been a source of strength, both in song-writing and in building Mana-Zucca’s musical presence.
The salon-concert era in Mazica Hall wound down; the house that once held hundreds of concerts gradually fell out of that role; her public profile diminished a bit though her composing kept going.

In May 1974, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Miami—recognition of her long years of music, teaching, composing.

She died in Miami on March 8, 1981, about age 95 (if we take 1885 as her birth year). Even in death, the legacy held on: her manuscripts, scores, and papers are preserved in the Mana-Zucca Collection at Florida International University so performers, scholars, curious folks all over can pull them out, play them, study them.

Mana-Zucca may not be a household name today, but her music still sparkles with the same flair she brought to every performance. Her piano pieces — from the radiant Rhapsody and Etude de Concert to the tender In a Garden and Humoresque — show her range: dazzling virtuosity on one hand and lyrical charm on the other. Even her lighter works, like Little Dance and Mazurka Brillante, carry that unmistakable Mana-Zucca touch — theatrical, witty, and full of life. She was a woman who lived unapologetically large, a composer who might host a soirée one night and premiere her own concerto the next. Her melodies capture both the glitter of her Broadway beginnings and the quiet reflection of her later Miami years. In every sense, she was a true original: bold, funny, fiercely independent, and completely devoted to her art. Listening to Mana-Zucca today is like rediscovering a forgotten star whose light never really went out — it’s just waiting for you to press play.

Selected Performances

Prelude, Op. 73 - Composed in 1923, this miniature is one of Mana-Zucca’s most enduring works, a perfect distillation of her lush harmonic language and effortless lyricism.

At first glance, Prelude, Op. 73 seems modest: just a few pages, marked by a flowing melody that sighs over warm, chromatic harmonies. But listen more closely, and you’ll hear the fingerprints of a composer who knew her way around both the opera stage and the salon. The opening phrase sounds almost like a lost Rachmaninoff theme drifting through a smoky Miami night (she lived much of her life there), while the middle section breaks into an impassioned surge — the pianist’s right hand climbing ever higher as if chasing the horizon. Then, as quickly as it flared up, it melts away again, returning to its original hush with a wistful smile.

Fugato Humoresque on the Theme of Dixie - Only Mana-Zucca could turn a Civil War–era tune into a dazzling piano showpiece that winks as much as it impresses. Her Fugato Humoresque on the Theme of “Dixie,” composed in 1917, takes the familiar Southern anthem and whirls it through a whirlwind of classical counterpoint and ragtime flair.

In true Mana-Zucca fashion, it’s part homage, part mischief. She treats Dixie like Bach might have — tossing its jaunty melody between the hands in clever imitation — but then adds syncopations, key changes, and flourishes that remind you this is pure 20th-century Americana. The result is a kind of musical sleight-of-hand: scholarly on the surface, but full of humor and theatrical sparkle underneath.

A Portrait of Mana-Zucca- Here is fun video biography of Mana-Zucca with interviews and archival footage.

Locating The Music

Piano Rare Scores has a fabulous package of rare Mana-Zucca scores. There is also free public domain scores available at Sheet Music International. The Julliard Store has a bundle of four piano works. And finally, IMSLP has some additional free piano scores.

Compositions for Piano

Early Works (Pre-1910s)

Moment Musicale for Violin and Piano – Composed at age 7; her first published work.
Etude de Concert – Composed at age 8.
Frage – Her first art song, published by Schirmer.
Moment Triste & Moment Orientale – Composed at age 9; published by Schirmer.

1910s–1930s: Early Career & Pedagogical Works

Valse Brillante, Op. 20 – Published by G. Schirmer in 1916.
Fugato-Humoresque on the Theme of “Dixie”, Op. 21 – Published around 1917.
The Christmas Tree – Published by Congress Music Publications
Columbus Circle – Listed as a manuscript.
Interlude, Op. 184, No. 6 – Included in the "4 Piano Works" collection.
Etude d'hommage, Op. 26 – Included in the "4 Piano Works" collection.
Prelude, Op. 73 – Published in 1923

1940s–1960s: Mature Compositions

My Musical Calendar – A collection of 366 short piano pieces.
Sonata No. 1, Op. 217 – Composed in 1951.
Sonata No. 2, Op. 280 – Composed in 1968.
Badinage, Op. 288 – Composed in 1976.

1970s–1980s: Later Works

Wistaria, Op. 38 No. 1 – exact composition year unknown
The Zouaves' Drill, Op. 68 – exact composition year unknown.
Southland Zephyrs, Op. 72 No. 1 – exact composition year unknown.
Bolero de Concert, Op. 72 No. 2 – exact composition year unknown.
Poème, Op. 37 – exact composition year unknown.
Resignation, Op. 183 No. 9 – exact composition year unknown.
Memories, Op. 186 No. 28 – exact composition year unknown.
Nostalgia, Op. 187 No. 30 – exact composition year unknown.
Scherzando, Op. 266 – exact composition year unknown.
La Poverina, Op. 272 – exact composition year unknown.
Polka Comique, Op. 275 – exact composition year unknown.
Moment Espagnol, Op. 293 – exact composition year unknown.