Dave Beck

Dave Beck is an award–winning producer of KUOW Presents. Dave has been at KUOW since 1985, beginning his career here as classical music host and music director. From 1993 to 2000 he was co–host of Weekday. His national and regional broadcast honors include the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) Award for Best Interview and the Society of Professional Journalists Northwest Regional Excellence Award. The only male in three generations of his family who didn't work building rockets and airplanes for Boeing, Dave nonetheless has a keen interest in aeronautics and exploration. His favorite interviews include conversations with space pioneers Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, Bonnie Dunbar, Donna Shirley, Alan Sheperd, Steven Squyres and Don Brownlee.

Dave has won awards for his on–air conversations with historians Stephen Ambrose and Nathaniel Philbrick. His favorite musician interviews include cellist Yo Yo Ma, violinist Hilary Hahn and the late performers Joe Williams, John Denver, Milt Jackson and Milton Katims.

An active musician (cellist) as well as broadcaster, Dave is a member of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra and has played as principal cellist of the Bellevue Philharmonic and Seattle Philharmonic Orchestras. He serves on the board of directors of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra and regularly plays in the Seattle based chamber music society Klassikon and in the Bravura String Quartet. A University of Washington music graduate, his cello instructors have included Toby Saks, Raymond Davis and Cordelia Wikarski Miedel.

Dave's love of music originally drew him to radio. His first on–air radio experiences were as classical music, jazz and folk host at community stations KBCS in Bellevue and KAOS, Olympia. Dave is often called on by symphony orchestras and choral groups to perform musical compositions featuring narration.