As an adolescent, he received his earliest training on the violin from his father, orchestra conductor, Nicasio Jimenez, beginning at the age of fourteen. In 1849, he moved to Havana, where he studied with Italian violinist and composer Luigi Arditi. In the same year Jiménez founded a dance band in Havana and composed many danzas and guarachas for the ensemble. Later on, he traveled to Leipzig, Germany, where he studied piano, violin, and harmony. While residing there, he entered the Leipzig Conservatorium, where he studied violin with Ferdinand David, piano with Ignaz Moscheles, and harmony with Alexander Ritter. In Leipzig he performed as a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Upon his graduation from the conservatory, Jiménez returned to Cuba, where his two sons were born. In 1869, he returned to Leipzig with his sons, Nicasio and José Manuel Jiménez-Berroa, where he continued to perform with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, as a recitalist, and from 1871–5, in the “Negertrio Jiménez” with his sons. The trio concertized across Europe, arousing a mix of enthusiasm and curiosity from the press. In 1879 Jiménez returned to Cuba and died shortly thereafter in 1880.
Family
Jiménez was born into a musical family and was brother-in-law to composer Catalina Berroa and father of cellist Nicasio and pianist Lico Jiménez. His daughters Inés and Arcadia Jiménez were singers. With his son Jose Manuel Jimenez Berroa, he formed one of the first all black ensembles, billed as "Das Negertrio", and successfully toured in Europe, the Americas and in Cuba, both as a soloist and with the ensemble, playing mostly 19th-century Romantic compositions. The Jimenez children shared their father’s aptitude for music. Young Nicasio and Jose Manuel first studied in Hamburg under the guidance of Georg Armburst, professor of piano and organ at the local conservatory in that city. They were reunited one year later in Hamburg with their father, who by then had sought refuge on the Elbe because of the growing political instability in Cuba, which ultimately led to the Ten Years’ War. Exiled, the family emigrated to Leipzig under the sponsorship of Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke. They remained there for seven years. From 1868 through 1875 then, the Jimenez’s were firmly settled in Leipzig. They supported themselves there by performing professionally. The family participated in forty-seven concerts over this seven-year period in various German states.
