Paula Cole Joins Berklee Faculty

Berklee College of Music announces that Paula Cole has joined the college's Voice Department. Cole, a 1990 Berklee graduate, is a Grammy winner and seven-time Grammy nominee who has sold approximately three million albums. She begins her tenure on September 1. 

"I like to think of what I do as a loving gesture of giving back, and teaching is a natural extension of this personal philosophy. I'm grateful and excited to be returning to my Berklee roots and community," said Cole. 

Paula Cole has released six solo albums in a career spanning more than 20 years. She has performed with icons such as Peter Gabriel and Dolly Parton, and her songs have been covered by Herbie Hancock, Annie Lennox, and Katharine McPhee, among others. From Rockport, Massachusetts, Cole grew up in a musical family singing for fun: American songbooks, traditional folk songs, Christmas carols, and a cappella harmonies. While finding kindred spirits in records, she become a fixture in her school musicals, which led to a scholarship from Berklee, where she studied jazz singing and improvisation. 

While a senior at Berklee, she was offered a deal with a jazz label but declined. In 1993, after Cole's Imago debut Harbinger, Peter Gabriel asked her to join his Secret World Tour. From 1994-96, Cole toured America extensively, building a foundation of support that then embraced her 1997 album This Fire, which yielded the hits "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait," and the 1997 Grammy for Best New Artist. From her top ten hits of the 1990s to her more recent critically acclaimed albums, Cole continues to write, produce, record, and perform heartfelt, meaningful, lasting music that defies categorization.