Almost every young musician dreams of making it big, of taking the stage in front of thousands of cheering fans to pour out their heart through song.

For Sarah Jarosz, an 18-year-old bluegrass prodigy from just outside Austin, Texas, that dream has become real. A whiz on the mandolin, young Sarah wrote her first hit, “Song Up in Her Head,” at age 14 and has since been featured in such magazines as Rolling Stone, Oprah Winfrey’s O, and Acoustic Guitar. She played recently with blues legend B.B. King, appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” and was even nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

Meanwhile, grandfather Fred Jarosz, executive director of Springfield’s Hoogland Center for the Arts, couldn’t be prouder.

“She isn’t trying to be anybody else,” he says. “She’s not trying to be a queen or a doll…. She has been able to keep her composure and her humility.”

Fred Jarosz is hoping to bring his granddaughter to Springfield for a performance soon, so keep an eye out for her at the Grammys in case this young and humble starlet makes it up our way.

“We are really proud of her,” says Fred Jarosz. “If she wins the Grammy, that’ll be a real wing-ding, and I think she’s got a good chance.”