Sierra Hull’s positively stellar career started early. That is, if you consider a Grand Ole Opry debut at age ten, called back to the famed stage a year later to perform with her hero and mentor Alison Krauss, to be early. She played Carnegie Hall at 12; at 13 signed with Rounder Records and issued her debut, “Secrets,” and garnered the first of many nominations for Mandolin Player of the Year. She played the Kennedy Center at 16 and the next year became the first bluegrass musician to receive a Presidential Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music. As a 20-year-old, Hull played the White House. Sierra found inspiration in Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, and Sam Bush. And, just as importantly, she affirmed her own sense of identity as she continued to break new ground. “There’s a voice in the back of my head telling me to keep working, to keep moving forward,” Sierra says. “You have to keep progressing and introducing new things.”