Cole and Kate Porter Memorial Scholarship
The Cole and Kate Porter Memorial Scholarship was established in memory of composer and lyricist, Cole Porter, a native Hoosier, and his mother, Kate Cole Porter.
Cole Porter was born in 1891 in Peru, Indiana. He was exposed to music from an early age as his mother began his musical training on the violin at age six, and the piano at age eight. Porter, with help from his mother, wrote his first operetta when he was 10-years-old.
As an undergraduate student at Yale, he tested his musical talents in writing for musical theater and cheer songs, including the famous "Yale Bulldog Song". Porter later enrolled at the Harvard University Law School, but transferred to the Harvard School of Music.
During the 1930's, Porter established a career in musical theater and Broadway that would span over four decades. He was a master of musical style and stylishness, placing his own imprint on everything he wrote. Martin Gottfried, a theater critic, wrote, "Respected by other great Broadway composers and able to communicate to the mass public on a sophisticated level, he was indeed unique."
The Cole and Kate Porter Memorial Scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students at the Jacobs School of Music based on merit.