The Cole and Kate Porter Memorial Fellowship
In 1983, the James Omar Cole family of Peru, Indiana, established the Cole and Kate Porter Memorial Fellowship in memory of composer/lyricist Cole Porter (a native Hoosier), and his mother, Kate Cole Porter. "There is no doubt that Cole Porter will be remembered in history as one of the giants of the Broadway musical and of popular music in America," said Charles Webb, Dean Emeritus of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. "The memorial fellowships honor one of Indiana's most distinguished composers."
Mr. Porter was born in 1891 in Peru, Indiana. It was during the 1930s that he made his mark on Broadway and established a career in the theater that would span some 40 years. He wrote some of Broadway's most memorable "charm songs" such as You're the Top and It's De-Lovely. For romantics, he composed and wrote the lyrics to such classics as Night and Day and Begin the Beguine. His Broadway hit shows include Kiss Me, Kate and Anything Goes. Performers from Fred Astaire to Ethel Merman, Ella Fitzgerald to Louis Armstrong, and Sarah Vaughn to Judy Garland have performed his works. Author Martin Gottfried wrote, "Porter was so pyrotechnical a wordsmith with so special a sensibility that, when it comes to both words and music, he is in a class by himself."
The Cole and Kate Porter Fellowship is awarded annually to two graduate students for two years of study in performance and/or composition at the IU Jacobs School of Music.