Master mandolinists Danny Knicely and Jack Dunlap (above) first connected when Knicely apprenticed Dunlap through the Virginia Folklife Program in 2015. A year later, the duo recorded its first album, Chop, Shred & Split, which received a Washington Area Music Award for best bluegrass recording. The two maestros have pushed the boundaries of their instruments in individual ways, but when they get together to perform—whether onstage or around a campfire—musical chemistry creates what they like to call “mandolin fireworks.”