Joaquín Nin-Culmell

Joaquín María Nin-Culmell (5 September 1908 – 14 January 2004) was a Cuban-Spanish composer, internationally known concert pianist, and emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley.

He was a student of Paul Dukas and also studied in the early 1930s with Manuel de Falla, Spain's foremost composer, focusing on harmony, counterpoint and fugue, as well as musical composition.

While at Berkeley, he conducted the University of California Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a pianist with numerous musical groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Throughout his career, Nin-Culmell performed concerts in France, Italy, England, Switzerland, Cuba, Spain and Denmark, and was a member of many organizations: the International Society for Contemporary Music and the Composers' Forum, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid (as was his pianist/composer father, Joaquin Nin), the Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona, and the French Legion of Honor.

He continued to compose and perform, as well as mentoring many young artists and writers in the area, including the future publisher and managing editor of The Environmentalist, Janet Ritz, whose parents lived across the street from Nin-Culmell.