She feared that her mother would disapprove of her work in a bar, so she adopted a stage name, Nina (a nickname from a former boyfriend) and Simone (after the French actress Simone Signoret). In 1954, Simone began playing piano and singing at the Midtown Bar and Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Simone continued to work as an accompanist and music teacher as she took private lessons and pursued her dream of becoming a concert pianist. She always felt that her rejection was based solely on her race and the injustice had a profound impact on her. Simone applied to Curtis but was denied entry. She worked as an accompanist and piano teacher to support herself but left Juilliard after she ran out of money. She earned a scholarship for a one-year program at the Juilliard School in New York City and used the time there to prepare for the entrance exam to the prestigious (and tuition-free) Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1950, Simone graduated from Allen as the valedictorian. Funds donated by a pair of white patrons in Tryon allowed Simone to attend the Allen High School for Girls, a private, integrated high school in Asheville, North Carolina. She learned classical repertory and specialized in playing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Simone soon began formal training, her lessons paid for by benefactors who saw her promise as a pianist. Simone took up the piano before her feet could reach the pedals, and by the age of six, she was playing during church services. The family’s home was filled with music and Simone’s mother encouraged her musical pursuits but did not approve of nonreligious music like blues and jazz. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher and housekeeper, and her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as an entertainer, barber, and dry-cleaner. Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. No popular singer was more closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement than Simone. Mostly known as a jazz singer, her music blended gospel, blues, folk, pop, and classical styles. “The High Priestess of Soul,” Nina Simone was a singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist.

Women 21 plays with self