Marcie Sillman

Reporter

Marcie Sillman arrived at KUOW in 1985 to produce the station's daily public affairs program, Seattle After Noon.   One year later, she became the local voice of All Things Considered, NPR's flagship afternoon news magazine. After five years holding down the drive-time microphone, a new opportunity arose. Along with Dave Beck and Steve Scher, Marcie helped create Weekday, a daily, two-hour forum for newsmakers, artists and thinkers.

The new century brought new challenges. Marcie and Dave Beck created The Beat, Seattle's only broadcast program to focus specifically on arts and culture. In 2002, after more than 15 years as a daily host, Marcie decided to become a full-time cultural reporter. During her career, more than 100 of her stories have been heard on NPR's newsmagazines, as well as on The Voice of America. In 2005, she became KUOW's first special projects reporter. In this role, she produces in-depth audio portraits and documentary series about life and culture in the Puget Sound Region.

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Music
11:51 am
Mon May 13, 2013

The Onlies: Seattle High School Students Make Beautiful Music

Credit Bond Huberman
The Onlies Play Live in KUOW Performance Studio

  • Marcie Sillman interviews The Onlies.

When it comes to musical talent, there's no shortage in Seattle. The city boasts a thriving indie rock scene, great jazz and classical musicians, and the country's most popular hip-hop act, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. 

But the string trio The Onlies are little outside the norm. For one thing, Sami Braman, Ryan Calcagno and Leo Shannon play fiddle-inspired old-time and traditional tunes. And for another, despite performing together for a decade, none of the three is old enough to have a driver's license.

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Jazz Performance
9:00 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Chick Corea: "Darn That Dream"

Credit KUOW Photo/Jason Pagano
Chick Corea and Marcie Sillman

Chick Corea plays "Darn That Dream"

Pianist and composer Chick Corea has touched almost all the musical bases during a career that has spanned almost five decades.  From avant garde to bebop to Latin fusion, Corea has experimented and mastered multiple jazz styles and has won a loyal following of fans and critics.

Marcie Sillman interviews Chick Corea

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Seattle Slam Poet
7:49 am
Mon April 8, 2013

Seattle's Daemond Arrindell Changes Lives Through Poetry

Credit Ken Lambert, Seattle Times
Among his many roles, poet/slam artist Daemond Arrindell is “slam master” of the Seattle Poetry Slam, held weekly at Re-bar.

Daemond Arrindell wants to change the world. Not through the ballot box or protest marches. Arrindell’s weapon is poetry. He uses his words to touch individual lives, particularly the lives of young people.

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Interactive Artwork
5:35 pm
Thu March 21, 2013

New Seattle Art Museum Installation Mirrors The City

Credit Courtesy/Doug Aitken Workshop
Artist Rendering, Seattle Art Museum's Mirror installation

When Seattle Art Museum opened its expanded downtown building in 2007, some people thought the main entrance on First Avenue was a little undistinguished.

One of those people was the late arts patron Bagley Wright. His wife, Virginia, says he thought the museum entrance needed to be marked in a dramatic way. "Because it looked like the entrance to an office building," she recalls.

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Modern Burlesque
5:22 pm
Thu March 21, 2013

Seattle's Waxie Moon: Burlesque Performer For A New Century

When you hear the word burlesque, what comes to mind?

Some of us envision down and dirty night clubs populated by weary strippers clad in not much more than feather boas and G-strings. For most of the past century, burlesque has been synonymous with women doing a little bump and grind for mostly male audience members. Remember the musical "Gypsy?"

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Breaking Dreamliner Update
2:22 pm
Tue March 12, 2013

FAA Gives Boeing Go Ahead To Test New Battery System

charred battery
Credit NTSB Photo
The lithium-ion battery that started a fire on a 787 at Boston Logan Airport. An NTSB report said the fire injured one firefighter and was hot enough to melt steel.

Last Updated: March 12, 2013 5:30 p.m. 

In a statement, the FAA said Boeing could go ahead with its plan to test a redesigned battery system for the 787. The FAA also gave the green light to limited flights for two aircraft that will have test versions of the new systems.

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Cultural Development
3:21 pm
Thu February 21, 2013

Seattle's Pike-Pine Corridor Gets New Arts Space

Credit Illustration/SMR Architects
An illustration of the future home for 12th Avenue Arts, a multi-use building that would house two theaters and office spaces for theater companies in Seattle.

The 12th Avenue Arts project will transform a Seattle Police Department parking lot into one of Capitol Hill's newest multi-use buildings. In addition to retail and apartments, the building will include two theaters and office space for three small theater companies.

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Celebrating The Past
5:00 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

New Life For Restored Memories From Seattle’s Female Rockers

You probably know the bands that put Seattle on the international music map in the early 1990s. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam have become legends, but they're only part of the Seattle music story. Women rocked the scene, too. Gretta Harley came to Seattle in 1990, looking for her tribe, and she says she found it.

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Ballet Preservation
4:40 pm
Tue February 12, 2013

The Art Of Preserving Balanchine Ballets

If you ask American ballet dancers to name the person with the biggest impact on their artform, chances are they'll answer: George Balanchine.

"George Balanchine changed the way we look at dance," enthuses Seattle arts writer Sandi Kurtz. "In the same way Picasso changed the way we look at visual art, the same way Mozart changed what we heard in the concert hall."

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Obituary
11:22 am
Thu February 7, 2013

Northwest Artist Alden Mason Dies

Credit Courtesy University of Washington
Alden Mason's 'Bird'

Alden Mason was a Pacific Northwest native and a lifelong resident, but his artistic influence reaches far beyond this corner of the country. Mason was born in Everett, Wash., in 1919, and he grew up enamored with the outdoor world around him. 

He planned to study entomology when he enrolled in the University of Washington.  By chance, he told an interviewer, he wandered over to the art building, where a nude model was posing for painting students.  Mason was only half-joking when he says that encounter changed his career path.

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