When I said goodbye to Julie Cascioppo in her artist loft she was poised to start an online search for a European booking agent, preferably one with contacts in Milan. Since Julie's image once spanned the side of an Ottoman Palace in Istanbul it's fair to say that she is an internationally known cabaret singer. Why isn't her photograph yet hanging on the Wall of Recognition at Ballard High School?

On Friday, June 27 Julie premiered her latest show in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center; "I Love Being Abroad: The India Odyssey." Julie Cascioppo has been performing her mix of theater and vocals, locally and abroad, for nearly 30 years. If her name isn't as familiar in Seattle as in Istanbul anyone other than a vegetarian should be familiar with the Cascioppo name in meat products, particularly their spicy sausages. Her brothers used to send out business calendars that made fun of everyone associated with the meat market. One year featured a quizzical photo of Julie with the caption: Think sausage.

Julie has been the subject of many interviews, from Jim Anderson's long ago profile in The Rocket to a piece written for a newspaper in the Philippines. Music and theater writers are better able to detail the characters that she used to perform at The Pink Door in Post Alley, her contralto voice, her songwriting and teaching. I wanted to know about her path from Ballard to New Delhi, from Western Washington to Paris by way of judging the lutefisk-eating contest at SeafoodFest.

In her light-filled loft Julie offered me a smoothie, searched her studio for a ringing phone and finalized arrangements for studying Italian while I looked around. We'd arranged to meet before the premier of the show, when Julie had thought there would be downtime. In just three days the hours had already filled as she finalized an engagement in Bali and lined up local performances for her summer in Seattle.

I'd read her biography and read performance reviews on-line. Her father, Sam V., was first generation from Sicily; her mother Solveig was Norwegian by way of Alaska. Julie and her brothers grew up in Ballard and went to Ballard High School. Fluent in French and Spanish, Julie says of her Italian, "I wish I could speak it a little better." Even though her next long-term singing engagement is in Bali, the hotel manager is Italian. "All people are more welcoming if you speak their language," she told me.

Cascioppo Brothers trucks with the image of her father in his trademark hat still park across from the original shop at 24th Northwest and Northwest 80th. The storefront is now leased to Fresh Fish Company but wholesale operations for Cascioppo are in the back; their products still available in the glass cases along with fish. Although Julie is close with her family she has traveled literally and figuratively far from Ballard. The Ballard of her childhood and high school years was more small-minded, far from its current "hip" status. Ballard grads were more likely to work in the family business than continue on to college. Julie wanted "to get out of Dodge."

At Ballard High School her first theatrical role was the one made famous by Marlene Dietrich in "Witness to the Prosecution." She mentions her teacher Earl Kelly, "it really is important to find a teacher who helps you discover your talents." Although she'd been singing since childhood, it was at Ballard that performing first kept her from feeling like just "a cog in the machinery."

Although she majored in theater at Western Washington there was a time that she considered becoming an anthropologist. When she wasn't cast for theater parts after college she decided to create her own theater; in part because she didn't think she had enough talent as a singer. But the cabaret songs played in her childhood home were always available in her head; her repertoire was huge. A chance encounter while singing with a band in the Caribbean led to four years performing in Paris. Always willing to take risks, and look up the friend of a friend in another country, Julie has performed on cruise ships and in five-star hotels, on cable TV, in the Jules Verne room at the Eiffel Tower and the 'Glaz Bar' in Bangkok.

In between travels Julie Cascioppo returns home to Seattle, to the artist studio where travel treasures adorn the walls. She writes new shows and composes music. She gives voice lessons and even works as a substitute teacher in the Seattle Public Schools. She signs up for Italian because there are still family secrets to be uncovered in Sicily, the Italian hotel manager in Bali, a desire to perform in Italy, and besides, it's such a beautiful language. She's willing to appear glamorous or ridiculous, eager to play Egan's Ballard Jam House and Milan. She's recognized abroad; I'd like to see her on the Wall of Recognition as a performer, a singer, a composer, and a teacher like the one who inspired her.

Peggy Sturdivant writes on neighborhoods for CrossCut.com and additional pieces for the Seattle PI's Neighborhood Webtown: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/ballard/ Her e-mail is atlargeinballard@yahoo.com