For Nina Simone, the talented pianist and jazz singer, the connection with her audience was a necessity. As she sat down at her piano, she would not touch the keys until she knew instinctively that she was ready to play and the audience was equally ready to listen. She sought to lose her audience to rapture with music and touch something deep in everyone present to leave them feeling transformed, demanding their undivided attention—her own type of magic.

“I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they’re not alone.”

However large the crowd, Nina Simone’s performances were intimate; she sang from intelligence and knew that whatever was happening in the world, her music would communicate it because it encompassed every kind of mood that exists in human beings.

Here are a few ways of how she created a deep connection with her audience:

Know your space
She familiarized herself thoroughly with the empty hall before her show, the seating arrangements, the stage, the dimensions of the hall, etc.

Read your audience
She decided the setlist for the performance at the last minute because she wanted to “soak up” the mood of the audience.

Create tension
She cast a musical spell over the audience by choosing songs for a certain mood and creating a climax of feelings with a few of them.