Melissa Anne "Price" Mazza

Melissa Mazza ObituaryObituary published on Legacy.com by Prospect Memorial Funeral & Cremation Services on Mar. 9, 2026.Melissa Anne Mazza of Naugatuck passed away at Yale New Haven Hospital on March 6, 2026 at the age of 54. She was the last of 14 children born (on August 14, 1971) to Thomas and Celeste Price and grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, in a home her father built. The home sat on ten acres where Melissa rode horses, cared for chickens and the vegetable garden, and (in a very Florida moment) saw a gator.Melissa was a young child when her family noticed her innate musical gifts. She quickly picked up the piano and singing. Melissa joined the adult choir in St. Paul's parish in Daytona before she was in secondary school, and over time her soprano voice developed into a powerful and rich instrument. As a student at Father Lopez High School in Daytona Melissa joined local musical and community theatre, and in her voice lessons she was introduced to operatic arias and classical art songs.In her teenage years Melissa also excelled academically and was sharply intelligent -- so much so that when she occasionally fell asleep in class and was awakened by the teacher, she always gave the correct answer. Playing devil's advocate came naturally to her, and in her Catholic school she took particular pleasure in sparking philosophical, theological, and scriptural debates in the classroom and watching the touch of chaos she caused. As Melissa remembered it, her classmates were often mildly horrified when she challenged her teachers or millennia-old traditions. She had an incredible respect for learning and knowledge but always insisted on testing the truth of everything for herself.It is not surprising that Melissa's smarts needed an outlet to avoid boredom. She began attending Daytona Beach Community College (now Daytona State) in tenth grade and sought out such challenges as studying Chinese and Latin along with French. Later, as a young adult, she learned German (her favorite language) and Italian -- both of which were crucial for her further studies in music. At home she read widely in many different subjects.Her adventurous and ambitious side needed an outlet as well. In high school Melissa started a countdown wall calendar keeping track of the days until she could move to New York City. In the early summer of 1989 -- still months away from her 18th birthday in August -- Melissa graduated high school and within days was on a train heading north. She visited one of her brothers in Baltimore and then arrived early at a New York University residence hall.In New York Melissa deepened her study of music and threw herself into opera and classical music while also taking education courses and student teaching. She met her husband at NYU in October, 1992, and she graduated in May of 1993. Melissa stayed in Manhattan, was married on August 9, 1996, and continued vocal lessons and earned a master's degree in music business from NYU.Melissa's career really took off in 1999, when she parlayed an internship at Sony Music into a full-time job with the company. She was promoted several times, often with new job positions and titles being created for her as technological change shook up the industry; one vice president at Sony dubbed her the "guru of all things digital" in that dawning age of downloads and streaming. After leaving Sony in 2008 Melissa brought her formidable skills in royalties, legal contracts, and computers and technology to other companies (some of them cutting-edge start-ups) in the (mostly) entertainment field. She branched away from music to work on platform and system launches for films, television syndication, and even financial and news companies like Bloomberg. Melissa and her husband moved from Manhattan to New Britain, CT at the start of 2010, and during the twenty-teens she was often flying to Los Angeles, Canada, and India to work on projects and deals. She was sometimes mistaken for an attorney or an accountant (or both), but with modesty and humor she would always accept the compliment and say "I majored in opera and ended up doing this somehow."She did keep in touch with her musical roots for many years and twice sang on Italy's Amalfi Coast. Over time smaller health issues developed into larger ones and by the late twenty-teens Melissa -- who with her husband had moved from Connecticut back to New York City in 2018 -- had stopped singing except for fun. She also had to retire in 2022 shortly after a final move to Connecticut (this time to Naugatuck). She continued to read and listen to music, enjoyed random car trips, lived for Christmas, and liked watching cooking and baking shows. An animal lover from her youth, Melissa and her husband had several cats and two dogs. They said goodbye to their rescue pup Lexlie in the summer of 2023 and Melissa missed her dearly.Melissa is survived by her husband James C. Mazza and predeceased or survived by many siblings, including Thomas (Timmy) Price Jr., Dennis Price, Celeste Price, James Price and his wife Debbie, and Nora Jaimes and her husband Julio. She also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews including Jennifer Barranco and Brandy Price, both of whom were like sisters to her growing up. In keeping with Melissa's stated wishes there is no memorial service or funeral, either public or private, but her memory will be kept alive on this website's tribute wall: please leave a note if you like.For anyone who would like to make a charitable donation in Melissa's memory, good choices based on her medical history are The PTEN Foundation (https://ptenfoundation.org) and the American Brain Foundation (https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/). As an animal lover, donation to or volunteering with animal welfare organizations and shelters would also be a fine way to honor her memory.Prospect Memorial/ The Palmerie Family is honored to assist Melissa's family during this difficult time and invites you to share your fond memories, photos and words of comfort on Melissa's tribute wall on this website for her family to cherish in the days ahead.To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Melissa Anne (Price) Mazza, please visit our floral store.To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.