About Joaquín Nin
Lived 1879 – 1949 (aged 70). Joaquín Nin was a Spanish and Cuban composer, music educator, pianist and musicologist.
Joaquín Nin y Castellanos (29 September 1879 – 24 October 1949) was a Cuban pianist and composer. Nin was the father of Anaïs Nin.
Biography He was son of the Catalan writer Joaquim Nin Tudó and Ángela Castellanos Perdomo, a Cuban from Camagüey. Nin studied piano with Moritz Moszkowski and composition at the Schola Cantorum (where he taught from 1906 to 1908). He toured as a pianist and was known as a composer and arranger of popular Spanish folk music. Nin was a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando of Madrid and the French Legion of Honor.
Married since 1902 with the Cuban singer Rosa Culmell, they were the parents of writer Anaïs Nin, businessman Thorvald Nin, and composer Joaquín Nin-Culmell.
Joaquím Nin appears as one of the characters in the novel The Island of Eternal Love (Riverhead, 2008), by Cuban writer Daína Chaviano.
Music
Memory In her memoirs and fiction, his daughter Anaïs Nin often attempts to consider aspects of her own nature by recalling how her father treated her as a child. Her "unexpurgated" diary volume Incest: From a Journal of Love describes an incestuous relationship with him in adulthood. She described him as an egotistical Don Juan and would often imitate him by affecting a "Doña Juana" persona.
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Important facts
People in Joaquín Nin's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Joaquín Nin's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Joaquín Nin?
Spanish composer and pianist (1879-1949)
When was Joaquín Nin born?
Joaquín Nin was born on 29 September 1879 in Havana.
When did Joaquín Nin die?
Joaquín Nin died on 24 October 1949 in Havana.
What was Joaquín Nin's occupation?
Joaquín Nin was a composer, music educator, pianist and musicologist.
What nationality was Joaquín Nin?
Joaquín Nin was Spanish and Cuban.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Joaquín Nin. https://biography.guide/joaquin-nin/
MLA: "Joaquín Nin." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/joaquin-nin/.
Chicago: "Joaquín Nin." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/joaquin-nin/.
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