Nina Simone was enrolled in a performing arts conservatory.
The Juilliard School ( [ ˌdʒuːliˈɑrd ] ) located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan , New York City , is a performing arts conservatory established in 1905 . Nina Simone . With the help of a few supporters in her hometown of Tryon , North Carolina , she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York . Waymon then applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia , where she was denied despite a well-received audition .