Peter Ostroushko and The Heartland Band will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at the Lied Center.

The Heartland Band

For a man who’s played with rock, country and bluegrass legends and fronted symphony orchestras, Peter Ostroushko’s latest endeavor is a bit of a sideshow.

“At the moment, I’m neck-deep in the circus world,” he says.

That’s right – a man who has recorded with Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins, Norman Blake and many others is writing and performing circus music for Circus Juventas, a youth circus training and performing organization in St. Paul, Minn., next door to Ostroushko’s hometown of Minneapolis.

Save your “Enter the Gladiators” jokes. The circus is more like Cirque du Soleil than Ringling Brothers.

“For me, the music definitely stands on its own,” Ostroushko says with confidence.

It’s the kind of confidence that Ostroushko, 55, has learned through decades of performing. He and his Heartland Band will be in Lawrence Friday for the annual Lied Center Free Concert and Family Arts Festival. The festival starts at 6 p.m., with the concert at 7 p.m.

Ostroushko is known for being equally talented on the fiddle and the mandolin. His own compositions – which now make up much of his performances – could be described as Americana music with a world flair, especially one from his own family’s heritage in Ukraine.

“Anyone who is a string player knows him,” says Karen Christilles, associate director for the Lied Center. “He’s a legend in that area. Even though people can’t say his name, he’s pretty recognizable.”

For the record, it’s Oh-STREW-shko.

If there’s any way he’s a household name, it’s through “A Prairie Home Companion,” Garrison Keillor’s longtime public radio program. Early on, Ostroushko served as a music director for the show and has maintained a relationship ever since, frequently playing with the band on air.

“Back in the days when the show went national, in the 1980s, I was a staff member at the time,” Ostroushko says. “I got to get a lot of my favorite musicians on the show. It was kind of a loose thing for how we’d get people on the show. Garrison would just ask who would we like to play with.”

The result found Ostroushko playing with some of his idols, including mandolinist Jethro Burns and fiddler Kenny Baker.

“It’s definitely tightened up,” Ostroushko says of the show now. “These days everything is played numerous times before the broadcast to make sure it improves the quality of the airwaves. Personally, I think it was more fun back then.”

Ostroushko’s own career has involved more than a dozen recordings, playing ukulele with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, an appearance on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and numerous collaborations.

Asked if there are musicians he’d still like to collaborate with, Ostroushko says he’s not sure.

“I’ve been blessed to play with so many great musicians in my life,” he says. “I don’t know necessarily if there’s anyone.”