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CONCERT PROGRAM: "Percussive plants on stage!"
- Karheiz Stockhausen: ZYKLUS - Percussion Solo (12')
- Simone Mancuso: ONE IN GREENLAND - Solo vibraphone (7')
- John Cage: CHILD OF TREE - For amplified plants (8')
- Sounds of Silence (1')
- John Cage: BRANCHES - For amplified plants (8')
- Sounds of Silence (1')
- Alberto Jacopucci: GRAFI - Solo percussion (16')

WORKSHOP PROGRAM: "Music outside the box: How to play a cactus!"
. Introduction to contemporary American/European composers.
. Demonstration with some percussion and plant instruments seen in the concert.
. Differences between conventional and non-conventional musical instruments.
. Pitched and unpitched instruments.
. Tone colors/timbres and the importance of amplification.
. Standard and new graphic scores.

About the artist:
Simone Mancuso was born and raised in Italy. He studied first in Italy, earning the Conservatory Diploma in Percussion in 2000, and then in Switzerland, where he specialized in contemporary music as a solo percussionist with Professor Mircea Ardeleanu. In 2003, Mancuso received the Solisten Diplom from the University School of Music of Lugano, Switzerland. This award is only given four times per year, and Mancuso was the first percussionist ever to receive this recognition. During his time in Switzerland, he founded the Lugano Percussion Group, which currently performs in Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Romania, and Switzerland.

Mancuso has been internationally recognized for his interpretations of contemporary classical pieces. His prizes include the Kranichstein-Stipendienpreise of the 41st Internationales Ferienkurse fuer Neue Musik (2002; Darmstadt, Germany) and the Stockhausen Prize 2005 (Cologne, Germany), awarded to Mancuso directly by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

He has collaborated with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Salvatore Sciarrino, Klaus Huber, Edoardo Soto-Milan, Rudolf Kelterborn and Adriana Hölsky, and with performers such as Martha Argerich, Alexander Rabinovtch-Barakovsky, Johannes Kalitzke, Gabriele Baldocci, and Michele Marelli.

Mancuso performs regularly in solo, duo, and ensemble concerts all over the world. He has performed as a soloist with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Basel Sinfonietta, the Orchestra da Camera Ungherese, and in a wide array of international venues and prestigious events, including Strathmore Hall (Bethesda, MD), Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik (Darmstadt, Germany), Teatro Nacional of Brasilia, University of Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Martha Argerich Project and ISCM World New Music Days (Switzerland), RAI Radio Tre and Teatro Colosseo (Italy), Colegiul National De Arta "Ion Vidu" (Timisoara, Romania), the University of Zurich and the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow, Russia), and at Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.).

Mancuso is a founding member of the of the jazz/classical cross-over ensemble The Mancuso-Suzda Project, based in Washington, D.C. He has recorded CDs for the EMI Classics, Col Legno, and Suisse Grammont Portrait labels, and he is currently receiving high praise for his newest CD with the Mancuso-Suzda Project entitled Lines. Mancuso is currently recording his debut CD of solo works by Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Cage, and Xenakis, to be released in 2009.

As well as being a performer critically acclaimed by The Washington Post, Mancuso is recognized as a clear and focused educator. Since 2007, he has been Artist in Residence at the Music Hall at Strathmore in Bethesda, MD, where he serves as both a musician and an educational lecturer.

Recently, Mancuso was appointed to the Percussion Faculty at Arizona State University School of Music in Tempe, AZ.