Simone, Nina, 1933-2003

Nina Simone born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, February 21, 1933, Tryon, North Carolina – April 21, 2003, Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France; began playing piano at the age of three; concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was 12; summer of 1950 at the Juilliard School, as a student of Carl Friedberg; took private piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff; worked as accompanist at Arlene Smith's vocal studio; taught piano lessons in Philadelphia; performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City as Nina Simone; In 1958 recorded album Little Girl Blue it was her only Billboard Top 20 hit; very invovled in Civil Rights, 1960s; she supported black nationalism and advocated violent revolution; there was an outstanding warrent for her arrest for an anti-Vietnam War protest so left for Barbados, and lived abroad in Liberia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France; married Andrew Stroud, in 1961; daughter, Lisa Simone Waymon Stroud