Joaquín Nin was son of the Catalan writer Joaquin Nin Tudó and Àngela 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.