Formed in Colombia, The United States and France, Juan Pablo Carreño studied composition at the Javeriana University in Bogotá with Guillermo Gaviria and Harold Vásquez, where he graduated in 2003. Later on, he was a scholarship recipient at Florida International University where he studied with Orlando Jacinto García and worked as a professor of composition and music theory. In France, he studied composition with Jean-Luc Hervé at the Conservatory of Nanterre, and

with Gérard Pesson at the Paris conservatory, where he graduated in 2010.

While still a student at the Paris Conservatory, he founded the orchestra Le Balcon alongside conductor Maxime Pascal, composers Mathieu Costecalde and Pedro García, pianist Alphonse Cemin and Sound Engineer Florent Derex.

He was appointed resident in the Academy of France in Rome (Villa Medici) between 2011-13, and he was also selected in New York for the program ICELab, to work in 2012 with the International Contemporary Ensemble.

In 2007 he obtained an artistic residence in Mexico from the Colombian Ministry of Culture and Mexico’s FONCA. In 2008 he was selected for the “Atelier de composition” held by Salvatore Sciarrino at the Centre Acanthes (Metz, France). In 2010, he is invited as composer in residence of the festival Musique-sur-ciel in France, a festival that commissioned him the work Golpe en el diafragma. In 2011, he was invited as artist in residence of Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle.

His music has been played in several countries in the Americas and Europe by ensembles such as, Ensemble Intercontemporain, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Quatuor Tana and Le Balcon. He collaborates regularly with Colombian artist Nieto and the agency Nova et Vetera.

His first opera, La Digitale, a commission of the Opera house of Marseille and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, was premiered in 2015 at La Criée Theater in Marseille.

His music is published by Éditions Musicales Artchipel.