Local Classical – Featured Artist

This week’s featured artist on CMI Streaming’s Local Classical channel is iconic Indiana composer Cole Porter. Born to a wealthy family in Peru, Indiana, Porter’s grandfather sent him to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, hoping he would become a lawyer. But porter took a piano to school with him and found that his ability to entertain made it easy to make friends. While in college at Yale, Porter was a member of the Whiffenpoofs a cappella singing group, served as president of the Yale Glee Club, and composed around 300 songs, some of which are still performed such as the football fight song “Bulldog.” After college, Porter defied his grandfather’s wishes and took up music as a profession. He was classically trained, but was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start to his career, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway song-writing teams, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs, many of which have become standards. Connect to CMI Streaming’s Local Classical channel for music by Cole Porter.