DR. NINA SIMONE
February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003
CLASSICAL JAZZ PIANIST, PHILOSPHER, CIVIL RIGHTS
LEADER, COMPOSER, ARRANGER
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
Civil Rights Movement Music Empowerment Singer and Songwriter
HER VOCAL CAPABILITY WAS CONTRALTO
HER VARIOUS IN-DEPTH MUSIC GENRES WERE CLASSICAL, JAZZ, FOLK, AND POP
SHE ARRANGE AND COMPOSED 50 ALBUMS AND WROTE OVER 500 SONGS
BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina to Mary Kate Waymon and John Divine Waymon
She was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop.
The sixth of eight children born into a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, despite a well-received audition, she was denied admission, which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.
To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to “Nina Simone” to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play “the devil’s music” or so-called “cocktail piano”. She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She released her first hit single in the United States in 1958 with “I Loves You, Porgy”.Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied by expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.
Nina Simone suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), on April 21, 2003. She is survived by her daughter.
Honors and Awards
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen, Netherlands, named a street after her, as “Nina Simone Street”: she had lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990. On August 29, 2005, the city of Nijmegen, the De Vereeniging concert hall, and more than 50 artists (among whom were Frank Boeijen, Rood Adeo, and Fay Claassen)[120] honored Simone with the tribute concert Greetings from Nijmegen.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2010, a statue in her honor was erected on Trade Street in her native Tryon, North Carolina.
The promotion from the French Institute of Political Studies of Lille (Sciences Po Lille), due to obtaining their master’s degree in 2021, named themselves in her honor. The decision was made that this promotion was henceforth to be known as ‘la promotion Nina Simone’ after a vote in 2017.
Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.