Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach , [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice. The sixth of eight children born into a poor family in North Carolina , Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. Early in her career, to make a living, Simone played 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 released her first and biggest hit single in the United States in with " I Loves You, Porgy ", which peaked inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot chart. Rolling Stone has ranked Simone as one of the greatest singers of all time on various lists. Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner as well as an entertainer. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher. Her concert debut, a classical recital , was given when she was Simone later said that during this performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people.
After her graduation, Simone spent the summer of at the Juilliard School as a student of Carl Friedberg , preparing for an audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Only three of 72 applicants were accepted that year, [ 28 ] but as her family had relocated to Philadelphia in the expectation of her entry to Curtis, the blow to her aspirations was particularly heavy.
For the rest of her life, she suspected that her application had been denied because of racial prejudice, a charge the staff at Curtis have denied. At the time the Curtis Institute did not accept students over She took a job as a photographer's assistant, found work as an accompanist at Arlene Smith 's vocal studio, and taught piano from her home in Philadelphia. In , she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone".
Simone's mixture of jazz, blues , and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small but loyal fan base. In , she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker , but quickly regretted their marriage.
