Alison Maria Krauss was born on July 23, 1971, she is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of 10 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, Alison Krauss and Union Station, and later released her first album with them as a group in 1989. She has released fourteen albums, appeared on numerous soundtracks, and helped renew interest in bluegrass music in the United States. Her soundtrack performances have led to further popularity, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, an album also credited with raising American interest in bluegrass, and the Cold Mountain soundtrack, which led to her performance at the 2004 Academy Awards. As of 2019, she has won 27 Grammy Awards from 42 nominations, ranking her third behind Quincy Jones and classical conductor Georg Solti for most Grammy Award wins. She is the most awarded singer and the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. At the time of her first, the 1991 Grammy Awards, she was the second-youngest winner (currently tied as the ninth-youngest). On November 21, 2019, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump. Alison Maria Krauss was born in Decatur, Illinois, to Fred and Louise Krauss. Her father was a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1952 and taught his native language. Her mother, of German and Italian descent, is the daughter of artists. Her older brother, Viktor, is also a musician. Krauss grew up in the college town of Champaign, home to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where she lived from 1971 to around 1990. She began studying classical violin at age 5 but soon switched to bluegrass. Krauss said she first became involved with music because "my mother tried to find interesting things for me to do" and "wanted to get me involved in music, in addition to art and sports". At the age of 8 she started entering local talent contests, and at 10 had her own band. At 13, she won the Walnut Valley Festival Fiddle Championship, and the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass in America named her the "Most Promising Fiddler in the Midwest". She was also called "Virtuoso" by Vanity Fair Magazine. Krauss first met Dan Tyminski around 1984 at a festival held by the Society. Every current member of her band, Union Station, first met her at these festivals.

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