Born in Granada but raised in Madrid, she studied at the Escuela Superior de Canto with Professor Ramón Regidor and Professor José Luis Montolio.

Her operatic debut was in 1996 with Dido and Aeneas. During the 1996-97 season, María José Moreno won the XXXIV Francisco Viñas Singing International Contest in Barcelona. Maria José Moreno made her debut at the Wiener Staats Oper with Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and after that great success she was immediatly invited for singing Olympia from Les Conte de Hoffman. She made her debut in La Scala with Gilda Rigoletto. In 2009 she made her debut at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro with the role of the Countess Adèle from Le Comte Ory and after that success she is invited in 2010 to sing the main role of Demetrio and Polibio and a concert with works by Pergolesi.

She has sung in the most important european theaters, like La Scala de Milán, La Fenice de Venezia, Teatro Real in Madrid, Wiener Staats Oper, Academy of Ancient Music in London, Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Festival de Savolinna, Barbican Centre, Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Teatro de la Maestranza, etc. She has worked with conductores, such as Peter Maag, Sir Colin Davis, Julius Rudel, Jesús López Cobos, Alberto Zedda, Víctor Pablo Pérez, García Navarro, Miguel Ortega, Richard Bonynge, Ros Marbá, Frans Bruggen, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Marco Armiliato, Vassily Petrenko, Giuliano Carella, Stefano Ranzani, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli or Christoph Rousset.

Her wide repertoire includes operas like Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Zauberflöte (Queen of the Night), La Sonnambula (Amina), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), La fille du regiment (Marie), Alcina (Morgana), L ́Elisir d ́amore (Adina), Il Viaggio a Reims (Contessa de Folleville), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Idomeneo (Ilia), Rigoletto (Gilda), La Boheme (Musetta), Nanetta (Falstaff), Celia (Lucio Silla), I Puritani (Elvira), I Pagliacci (Nedda), etc. She is also a regular guest singer in the seasons of the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, where she has sung zarzuelas like Marina, La Tabernera del Puerto, Doña Francisquita, Black el Payaso or Los Diamantes de la Corona, among others.

In concert, María José Moreno has sung many works like Rossini's La Petite Misse Solennelle , Haendel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Vivaldi's Magnificat, Mahler 's Second and Fourth Symphonies.