Nina Simone – NINA SIMONE INTEGRAL 1957- 1962 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 04:51:00 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Diggers Factory

Nina Simone was the sixth of eight children. Her mother was a Methodist preacher, and her father worked as an entertainer and hairdresser and in a dry cleaning business.She began playing the piano at the age of three or four. The first song she learned was God Be With You, Till We Meet Again. She showed talent on the piano and performed at her local church.

She made her concert debut, a classical recital, at the age of 12. Simone later recounted that her parents, who had been seated in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the auditorium to make room for white people. She said she refused to play until her parents were brought back to the front, and that incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement. Simone’s music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education, then a local fund was established to support her continued education. With the help of this scholarship, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina.

After studying at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, she planned to complete her education in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music, but was not admitted. Simone held that she was not admitted for racial reasons. An accusation denied by Curtis Institute staff, since Curtis had long admitted black students. The year Simone applied, only three of 72 applicants were accepted in piano at all. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

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