José Pereira began his musical studies at the Banda Musical Lanhelense. He later studied at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo with Armando Gonzalez and at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra (ANSO) with Aníbal Lima. He attended masterclasses with Serguei Arantounian, Nicolas Chumachenco, Anatoli Swarzburg, Evélio Teles, Gerardo Ribeiro, Lee-Chin Siow, Ilian Gronniz, Serguei Kravechenko, Vadim Repin and Thomas Brandis, among others.

In 2003, he received 2nd Prize and in 2004 1st Prize at the Prémio Jovens Músicos da RDP - Antena 2.

He has worked with conductors such as Peter Rundel, Emilio Pomàrico, Brad Lubman, Paul Hillier, Michael Sanderling, Olari Elts, Joseph Swensen, Stefan Asbury and Peter Eötvös, among others. He has performed with orchestras including the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Académica Metropolitana de Lisboa, Orquestra Pedro Álvares Cabral and Orquestra Utópica, among others. He is a founding member of the Ensemble Contrapunctus and the Webern Trio, and regularly performs with the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, Ensemble Darcos and the Musikfabrik. In 2014, he performed as soloist with the Orquestra de Sopros do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte da Universidade de Aveiro and the Orquestra Clássica de Espinho.

In addition to performing in all major concert halls in Portugal and appearing regularly at the country’s leading music festivals, he has also performed in Valencia, Rotterdam, Huddersfield, Barcelona, Strasbourg, Paris, Orléans, Bourges, Reims, Antwerp, Madrid, Budapest, Norrköping, Vienna, Witten, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cologne, Zurich, Luxembourg and Brussels. In 2011, with the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, he appeared at the Wiener Festwochen and at the Festival Agora; in 2012, he performed at the Festival Musica and at the Berliner Philharmonie.

With the Remix Ensemble, he has recorded several albums featuring works by Brice Pauset, António Chagas Rosa, Jorge Peixinho, James Dillon, Anders Nordentoft, Johannes Maria Staud, Emmanuel Nunes, Bernhard Lang, Wolfgang Mitterer, Karin Rehnqvist, Pascal Dusapin and Luca Francesconi. The album dedicated to Dusapin received recognition from Gramophone and was included in its 2013 Critics’ Choice list.

Among his recent major projects are solo appearances with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, guest concertmaster appearances with the Basel Sinfonietta, the world premiere of the opera Giordano Bruno by Francesco Filidei in Porto and Strasbourg with the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, and the world premiere of RI-TRATTO for solo violin by Heinz Holliger.

Currently, José Pereira is Second Concertmaster of the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, regularly guest concertmaster with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa – Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, and Professor of Violin at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra.