Born in Reus, 1988, Joan Magrané received his first composition lessons by Ramon Humet. He subsequently studied at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, ESMUC, (Barcelona) with Agustí Charles; in the Kunst Universität (Graz) with Beat Furrer and in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (Paris) with Stefano Gervasoni.

He has been lauréat of the Villa Medici (Rome, 2016), member of the Casa Velázquez (Madrid, 2017/2018), composer in residence in La Pedrera (Barcelona, 2018/2019) and in Faber (Olot, 2018), guest composer of the Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona, 2019/2020) and composer in residence of the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, CNDM, (Madrid, 2020/2021). The season 2021/2022) he is guest composer of L’Auditori (Barcelona).

Some poetic and artistic references —from Ausiàs March, Joan Roís de Corella to Francesc Garriga and Jaume C. Pons Alorda, from Marià Fortuny to Joan Miró and Perejaume— are crucial in his creative process; also very close to him are the music by Josquin Desprez, Orlando di Lasso and Claudio Monteverdi.

In the field of opera, he has worked on different projects such as Dido Reloaded, premiered at the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona in 2014, a chamber opera written with eight hands together with Xavier Bonfill, Raquel García-Tomás and Octavi Rumbau, produced by Òpera de Butxaca i Nova Creació, ÒBNC. Along with Raquel García-Tomás, he has also written the opera disPLACE, with a libretto by Helena Tornero and premiered in Vienna in 2015, with ÒBNC, as well as Diàlegs de Tirant e Carmesina (with Isabella Gaudí, Anna Alàs and Josep Ramon Olivé), a production by Òpera de Butxaca i Nova Creació, Festival de Peralada and Gran Teatre del Liceu, with scenery by Jaume Plensa, premiered in Peralada in July 2019 with musical direction of Francesc Prat. In November 2022, it is presented at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid with the collaboration of the Teatro Real. In 2019 he composed Dánae recorda a monodrama with libretto of Helena Tornero that is part of Sis Solos Soles, six monodramas for female performer and instrumentalist, commissioned to six teams of librettist and composer. Produced by the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Òpera de Butxaca i Nova Creació, it could be seen for a week in streaming in November 2019 since the premiere was canceled due to the pandemic.

His scenic work Intérieur (d’après Maurice Maeterlinck) was premiered in october of 2021 at Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris) by Ensemble Intercontemporain and Matthias Pintscher and mise-en-scène by Silvia Costa.

His works has been performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain (Pintscher, Mantovani), Quatuor Diotima, Graindelavoix (Schmelzer), London Sinfonietta (Colomer), Quartet Gerhard, Les éléments, Neue Vocalsolisten, Orquesta Nacional de España (Afkham), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra ( Pintscher), Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (Matheuz, Ono, Volkov), Orquesta de la RTVE (Kalmar), Ensemble Ars Nova, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Gérard Caussé, Carlos Mena, Iñaki Alberdi, Tanguy de Williencourt, Cosmos Quartet, Azahar Ensemble, Sigma Project, Kebyart Ensemble and many others in places like the Paris Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival, Bruxelles BOZAR, Théâtre du Châtelet, Heidelberger Frühling, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Festival de Peralada, Barcelona’s Auditori, ​​Palau de la Música Catalana, Madrid Auditorio Nacional, Festival de Torroella, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Fondation Royaumont, Musée d’Orsay and many others.

Some of his works are edited by Éditions Durand.