Already at the age of 14 João Carlos Santos discovered his passion for old instruments and the historical sources describing their performance. The historical approach sparked in him an interest not only for early musical practices, but also for the social and aesthetic ideas behind them. As a consequence, parallel to his musical studies, he decided to study philosophy, acquiring a bachelor from the University of Brasília. He then proceeded with his musical studies with Barthold Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague completing a bachelor in traverso and a later masters in traverso and music theory.

With many ensembles, João performs regularly music ranging from the 16th century to the present days. In 2012 he became a member of staff at the Royal Conservatory teaching courses on performance practice, historical compositional theory and philosophy. He is currently undertaking a PhD program at the Orpheus Instituut devoted to the interconnections between music-making, aesthetics and declamatory techniques.