Josep Río-Pareja was born in Barcelona in 1973. He obtained degrees in Composition, Orchestral Conducting, and Choral Conducting from the Conservatori Superior Municipal de Barcelona, completing these studies with the Outstanding Honours Award in Composition.

Subsequently, from 2002 to 2007, he resided in the United States, where he pursued a Doctorate in Composition at Stanford University under the guidance of composer Brian Ferneyhough. Since 2007, he has been a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.

He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the INAEM Award 2008 (National Institute of Performing Arts and Music - Spanish College in Paris), Second Prize at the "Concours Henri Dutilleux" 2004 in France, the Special Merit Diploma 2002 from the Accademia Chigiana in Italy, the Cristóbal Halffter Award 2001, the Frederic Mompou Award 1995, and the Young Composers First Prize from SGAE in 2000. José Río-Pareja has also received scholarships from La Caixa (2002-2004), Stanford University (2004-2007), Dorothy Culver Hayne Fellowship (2005), Centre Acanthes (2004), Accademia Musicale Chigiana (2002), and AIE-Cursos Manuel de Falla (1998).

His works have been commissioned or performed by international musical groups and soloists such as the Arditti String Quartet from London, the Ensemble Intercontemporain from Paris, the Ensemble Contrechamps from Geneva, the Ensemble Inauthentica/Mark Menzies from Los Angeles, Roberto Fabbriciani, Georges Pludermacher, Ann Unju Yi, Robert Huw Morgan, as well as Spanish musical ensembles and performers like the Ensemble NeoArs Sonora, the Ensemble Residencias, the Ensemble Enigma – the Chamber Orchestra of the Zaragoza Auditorium -, the Kandinsky Trio, the Alberto Rosado-David Apellániz duo, Carlos Gálvez, Lluïsa Espigolé, Plural Ensemble, Valencia Instrumental Group, or the Arbós Trio.

Among his latest premieres are his Quartet de Corda "Tempus Fluidum" performed by the Arditti String Quartet at the Nous Sons Festival in Barcelona (with subsequent performances by the same performers at the Ensems Festival in Valencia, the Transit Festival in Belgium, and the Wittener Tage in Germany); his Trio amb piano "La rivière sans socle", commissioned by the Caixa de Catalunya Foundation for the opening of the Aristide Maillol exhibition at Guadi’s La Pedrera; Temperamento for instrumental ensemble, commissioned as the resident composer of the Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporànea [CDMC] in [CDMC] 2010; Carácter, commissioned by INAEM and the Spanish College in Paris as part of a monographic concert of the composer held in Paris in 2010; and Entheos, commissioned by cellist José Miguel Gómez for the Holy Week of Religious Music in Cuenca 2011.