become known as Eunice Waymon was not the same turbulent artist who became a star as Nina Simone . Eunice Waymon was intended to play Bach at Carnegie Hall , and not “ Mississippi Goddam ” in a club . A tension between the two lasted all her life , and to a degree defined it and her music .
A certain narrative has solidified round the decision . We know from her own account that she adopted her new first name because a Hispanic boyfriend had always addressed her as “ niña ”, or “ girl ”, and we can imagine the proprietary , slightly dismissive tone that “ Chico ” – which was apparently his name – affected when he used it . “ Simone ” came from the French actress Simone Signoret , whom Eunice had seen as the eponymous blonde star of Casque d ’ Or , a party girl routinely ill-treated by her gangster boyfriend . It will be seen later that this was to become a running story in her life . In the movie , it all ends predictably badly , and one wonders how often Nina considered the ironies of the new name she had chosen as one male partner after another either revealed true colours or met a sticky fate . Feminist historians and critics have fully exercised this and many other ironies .
Other aspects of her early career are equally mythologised . She was clearly a prodigy , able to play almost anything she had heard by ear . The family secured her music lessons with Muriel Mazzanovich , an Englishwoman who had come to live in Tryon , and lived there , much loved and respected till the age of 102 . After she graduated from high school , the local community raised enough scholarship money to send Eunice to the Juilliard School in New York . The 17 year old ’ s short time there was intended to prepare her for entrance to the Curtis Institute of Music in the City of Brotherly Love . A hastily
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