Bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley in Manassas Feb. 11

The Hylton Performing Arts Center will host Dr. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012 at 8 p.m.  A pre-performance discussion will start at 7 p.m. in the Hylton Center’s Buchanan Partners Art Gallery.

The Clinch Mountain Boys live communities throughout the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Each week, they meet up in Coeburn, VA where their tour bus is parked and head out on the road. In addition to Dr. Ralph Stanley, the group consists of guitarists Ralph Stanley II (Stanley’s son), Nathan Stanley (Stanley’s grandson, who occasionally plays mandolin) and James Alan Shelton; fiddler Dewey Brown; bassist Jimmy Cameron; and banjoist Mitchell Van Dyke.

Born in 1927 in Big Spraddle, Va., Stanley and his brother Carter formed The Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946, and the band soon became one of the most celebrated bluegrass bands in the world. After his brother died in 1966, Stanley shifted the band’s musical emphasis while nurturing such young talents as Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley and Larry Sparks. In 1976, Stanley received an honorary doctorate of music from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.. President Ronald Reagan presented him with the National Heritage Fellowship in 1984. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honor in 1992. In 2000, Stanley became the first artist inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in the new millennium. In 2002, he won his first two Grammy Awards for his work on the soundtrack for the acclaimed film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  In 2004, he was named the Virginia Press Association’s Virginian of the Year and the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center opened in Clintwood, Va. In 2006, he received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2008, the Virginia Legislature named him the Outstanding Virginian of the Year.

This will be a family friendly concert. Tickets for youth through grade 12 half price when accompanied by an adult. Visit the box office or charge by phone at 888-945-2468 or visit hyltoncenter.org. The Hylton Performing Arts Center is located on George Mason University’s Prince William Campus at 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, Va., 20110. Free parking is available in the lot next to the Hylton Center.