José Luis Greco's music has been hailed as "pure alchemy".

He first achieved recognition in the 1980s as composer, performer and co-founder of Cloud Chamber, an Amsterdam-based multi-media dance/theater/music company supported by the Dutch Ministry of Culture for ten consecutive years. The company appeared throughout Europe, including the Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal), Documenta 8 (Kassel, Germany), Eurodance Festival (Mulhouse, France) and the Holland Festival, and in the U.S. (Lincoln Center).

During his 10-year sojourn in the Netherlands he also composed music for many independent ballet and dance theater productions and for various stable companies. Two of these ballets were commissioned by Djazzex Modern Dance Company and became part of its permanent repertoire.

Among the numerous commissions for concert works were those for Orkest De Volharding, The Mondriaan String Quartet and The Netherlands Wind Ensemble, these last two premiered in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. Commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Culture in 1992, his Spanish lyric opera Cuentos de la Alhambra (Tales of the Alhambra) received its world premiere in Haarlem and Amsterdam in February of 1996.

Since 1994 Greco lives in Madrid. Commissions and premieres have followed each other uninterruptedly. These include ballets for the Ballet Nacional de España (5 years in world-wide touring repertoire, including NY City Center), the Compañía Nacional de Danza, the Antonio Márquez Company, the inauguration gala of the 1995 Itálica Festival of Seville and the award-winning dance/theater production Estado Hormonal.

Among the symphonic works of this period are those premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Radio y Televisión Española, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi (Basque Country) and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, under the direction of Sergiu Comissiona, Adrian Leaper and Enrique García Asensio, among others. His solo, chamber and choral compositions have enjoyed interpretations by some of Spain's most distinguished performers and ensembles, and have been presented in the most prestigious series and auditoria.

Commissions include those from the Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Consejería de Cultura de la Comunidad de Madrid, the Festival of Sacred Music of Cuenca and from individual musicians.

Although Spain has become the focal point of his activities, his ties to the Netherlands and the United States in recent years have remained vigorous. In Holland, commissions and premieres have come from the hand of the SNK (Association of Dutch Choruses), the Rembrandt Trio, Djazzez Modern Dance Company, the Chorus of the University of Amsterdam and the Ricciotti Ensemble. The Mondriaan String Quartet recently commissioned him to compose a new work for mezzo-soprano and string quartet. In the United States he has received commissions from Downtown Music Productions, Franklin & Marshall College and The Queen's Chamber Band.

Within the scope of Greco's interests, his projects for young audiences deserve special mention. Besides two orchestral works, three works of music theater, and the arrangements for voices and orchestra of Basque children's songs, he has also composed the theme music for El Conciertazo, Spanish National Television's award-winning Classical music show for kids.

Greco is the son of the Spanish dancers José Greco and Nila Amparo. As a youngster, he studied piano and guitar and performed as an actor (in, among others, the Broadway production of A Gift of Time with Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland, and as guest star in an episode of the TV series Flipper) and dancer (the title role in Balanchine's NYC Ballet production of The Nutcracker and ten years with his father's company, The José Greco Spanish Ballet).

After playing in numerous pop bands and jazz ensembles, he went on to obtain a B.F.A. in music (summa cum laude) from the City College of New York (where he studied with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet among others) and an M.F.A. in composition from Columbia University (teachers there included Mario Davidovsky, Jack Beeson, Chou Wen-chung and George Edwards).

Before moving to the Netherlands he had transcribed and orchestrated Ravi Shankar's Second Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra Raga-Mala, premiered by the NY Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta, and conducted the production of his first one-act opera, Aria da Capo.

The English label ASV has released a CD dedicated exclusively to his orchestral works interpreted by The Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria, under the direction Adrian Leaper. More recently, the label Autor (Spain) has released another all-Greco CD featuring his works for dance and dance/theater, Movimiento Perpetuo.

On February 3rd, 2006 he was admitted into The Royal Spanish American Academy of Science, Arts and Letters (Spain).

In September 2006 the Spanish Embassy in Washington DC, in collaboration with the Cervantes Institute of New York, organized a tour of three American cities (New York, Washington DC and Miami) dedicated exclusively to his chamber music. Thanks to the success of the tour, the Embassy is now negotiating the American premiere of his opera Malaspina, o la Idea de la felicidad.