Max ZT & Manu Delago

Event information

Grammy-nominated innovators Manu Delago (handpan) and Max ZT (hammered dulcimer) unite in a bold new duo that expands the sonic possibilities of their instruments. Rooted in deep improvisation, global collaboration and refined compositional craft, they create immersive soundscapes that glow with delicacy and drive.

“Hearing Manu for the first time blew me away… he was thinking about his instrument in an unusual and unique way,” says Max ZT. The pair first met a decade ago, slowly shaping their musical language from improvisations into sophisticated compositions. In 2024, they finally recorded their debut album Deuce in an 18th-century hall of a monastery high in the Alps. Two musicians, face-to-face, both turning 40. The title chose itself.

Manu Delago has toured in over 50 countries and collaborated with Björk, Anoushka Shankar and The Cinematic Orchestra, as well as performing with the Metropole Orkest and London Symphony Orchestra. His award-winning Parasol Peak and the 1500-km, bicycle-powered ReCycling Tour reveal his restless, environmental imagination.

Brooklyn-based Max ZT, hailed by NPR as “the Jimi Hendrix of the hammered dulcimer,” has reshaped the instrument through studies with Senegal’s Cissoko Griot family and India’s Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. A founding member of House of Waters, he has scored an Emmy-winning ESPN documentary and released eight albums on Snarky Puppy’s GroundUP Music label. His 2024 album On Becoming earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Max enthralled Stroud at the Brunel Goods Shed in 2024 with singer/songwriter poet Dan Whitehouse.

Their debut duo album Deuce arrives in early 2026. Rhythmic, textural and open-hearted, this music feels ancient and entirely new at once. With exquisite sensitivity and technical mastery, Delago and ZT create spellbinding soundworlds that captivate from the very first note.