29. She took further lessons, and worked as a photographer’s assistant, while waiting for her big break
Although the suspicions of racism at least stopped Nina from thinking her rejection had come because she wasn’t good enough, they also stopped her from working hard to apply again the following year, which had been her original plan. Deflated, she declared herself ‘a stranger to the piano’, and took a job as a photographer’s assistant. But luckily her brother, Carrol, encouraged her not to give up, and she took lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a teacher from Curtis, in preparation for reapplying. Nina gave up her job, and paid for Sokoloff’s lessons by working as an accompanist at a local vocal studio.
