Saint-Saëns made his debut as a pianist at the age of ten and later studied organ and harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1853 he composed his first symphony, and from 1858 to 1877 he was organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris. His most famous work was the opera Samson et Dalila (1877). During the last part of his life Saint-Saëns toured widely in North Africa and the Americas.

His music, which is written in the classical French tradition, is elegant and precise in detail and form and combines the lyrical style common to 19th-century French music with a more formal quality.

He composed five piano concertos (all first performed by himself) and three violin concertos. Among his other works are the symphonic poems Le rouet d'Omphale (Omphale's Spinning Wheel, 1871) and Danse Macabre (1874), the Third Symphony in E-flat Minor (1886), and the suite for orchestra with two pianos, Le carnaval des animaux (Carnival of the Animals, 1886). Gabriel Fauré was one of his pupils.