I received an inquiry from a visitor to the Web site for the RPRF,
as follows:

> What do you know about a performer who called himself (sic)
> Mana-Zucca?  I have some early Duo-Art rolls by him, but can't
> seem to locate any biographical information.

So I replied as follows:  According to Charles Davis Smith in
his Duo-Art catalog, Mana-Zucca (apparently there is some confusion
about the hyphen, but I believe this version is correct)..."is a young
American musician and was born in New York City, where she (note!)
studied with Alexander Lambert.  When only seven years old she appeared
with the New York Symphony Orchestra, Walter Damrosch, conductor,
playing the Beethoven Concerto (A.P. note: Duo-Art didn't say which
one); and also with the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Orchestras.  At
eleven she toured the United States as a musical prodigy, playing
compositions by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Anton Rubinstein and
Saint-Saens.

Thereafter she went abroad and studied the pianoforte with Busoni
and Godowsky in Berlin, and composition with Max Vogrich in London.
After concertizing in Germany, Russia, France, England and Holland,
Miss Zucca returned home and studied with Herman Spieler in New York.
She has composed more than one hundred pieces ... and her compositions
have been sung and played by several of the leading artists of today."
(Born Gisella Zucca-Mana, the artist is said to have legalized her
name as "Mana-Zucca", but Aeolian lists the name without the hyphen).

On the other hand, Nicholas Slonimsky, in "Baker's Biographical
Dictionary of Music and Musicians", states that: "... (real name
Augusta Zuckerman.)  American pianist and composer, born New York,
Dec.  25, 1887; d. Miami Beach, March 8, 1981.  She studied piano with
Alexander Lambert in N.Y.; then went to Europe, where she took some
lessons with Leopold Godowsky and Busoni in Berlin.  Upon her return
to the U.S., she was exhibited as a piano prodigy.  In 1916 she changed
her name by juggling around the syllables of her real last name and
dropping her first name altogether.  She was soloist in her own Piano
Concerto in New York on Aug. 20, 1919; her Violin Concerto, Op. 224,
was performed in N.Y. on Dec. 9, 1955.

She published under the title My Musical Calendar, a collection of 366
piano pieces, one to be played every day, with the supernumerary opus
to account for leap years.  Among her many songs, which brought her
real success was I Love Life (A.P. note:  John Charles Thomas often
sang it).  In 1940 she settled in Florida.

I'd give more credence to Slonimsky, the demon lexicographer who went
to extraordinary lengths to certify his information, than to the
anonymous Aeolian scribe.  Everything you ever wanted to know about
Mana-Zucca ... and more!

Albert M. Petrak