Claudio José Domingo Brindis de Salas was born in Havana in August 1852, the son of the celebrated Afro-Cuban musician and composer Claudio Brindis de Salas. He began his musical studies with his father, but later continued with José Vander Gucht, a Belgian professor living in Havana. On December 18, 1863, he gave his first concert at the Havana Lyceum. Claudio Brindis de Salas recognized his son’s superior talent and in 1869 sent him to Paris with money won from a lottery. The young talent was admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he was mentored by Camilo Ernesto Sivori, a student of the legendary Nicolás Paganini. From Sivori, he learned the interpretive resources and dramatic gestures of the Romantic virtuosity that made the brilliant Paganini famous.

Brindis de Salas won first prize for violin at the Paris Conservatory in 1870, and upon completing his studies, he began a career as a concert pianist in various European cities. In 1875, he returned to America, taking up the position of director of the Conservatory of Haiti and giving concerts in Central American countries and Venezuela. In 1877, he visited Cuba and on November 24 of that year gave a successful concert at the Payret Theater (Prado and San Martín (San José), Old Havana, Cuba) in Havana. This visit to Havana was more than a musical success for the young Brindis de Salas, but also a social and personal success, as he found himself admired and respected by the most illustrious members of that society, which still maintained its pro-slavery ideals.

His concert career took him to Mexico and Buenos Aires, where he achieved one of the greatest successes of his professional career. In 1889, he returned to Europe, where he consistently enjoyed great popular acclaim, although specialized music critics were not always favorable and repeatedly complained about his emphasis on difficult passages and his sensational repertoire. But even the most rigorous critics recognized his command of the public, who gave him passionate ovations.

Brindis de Salas received decorations from several European monarchs (the Cross of Charles III from the King of Spain, the Order of Christ from the King of Portugal, and the Cross of the Black Eagle from the Emperor of Germany) and was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the Republic of France.

In 1900, he gave a concert tour of Cuba, which was a failure. In May 1911, he gave his last recorded concert, in Ronda, Spain. Shortly afterward, he left for Buenos Aires, where he had enjoyed great success.

The great Brindis de Salas died in poverty in 1911. The Cuban flag draped his coffin. In 1930, his remains were transferred to Cuba, and today lie in the Pantheon of Musical Solidarity in Havana, located in the Colón Cemetery (Zapata and 12th Streets, Vedado, Havana).