José Luis de Delás was born in 1928 in Barcelona. He studied music (violin and theory) there and continued his studies later in composition and conducting at the conservatory in Munich, also studying with Hermann von Waltershausen. In 1954 he returned to Spain and up until 1957 conducted concerts introducing the Spanish audience to the music of Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio etc. In 1957 he left Spain for political reasons. Since 1960 he has been living as a composer in Cologne. From 1968 till 1970 he worked at the studio for electronic music at the Rijksuniversiteit in Utrecht, Netherlands. Since 1993 he has been Lecturer for composition and analysis at the music faculty of the university of Alcalá de Henares near Madrid. In 1995 he was awarded the Spanish national prize for composition.

José Luis de Delás passed away on September 21st, 2018.