During his training period, Moreno won, among other prizes, the first award in the Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano (1977). He specialized in historical playing with a wide repertoire which covers pieces from the beginning of the 16^th century until the beginning of the 20^th. Pieces that he plays on either original models or accurate copies of period instruments: vihuela, Renaissance and Baroque guitar and lute, theorbo and classical-romantic guitar. Indeed, José Miguel Moreno is unanimously recognised as one of the greatest specialists in this period and he has performed in the most important festivals and musical centres of Europe, Australia, Asia and America.

He has been rewarded with several awards given by the specialized press. He has usually collaborated with Teresa Berganza and he has often gone on tour and participated in recordings with Hespèrion XX (among them the Lachrimae by John Dowland). He founded in 1990 the Ensemble La Romanesca and in 1999 the group Orphenica Lyra both dedicated to the performance of Iberian and European Renaissance and baroque music. The educational work he has developed since 1980, has leaded him to be guest professor in different universities, conservatories and courses in Europe, America and Asia. He has carried out for many years, along with the luthier Lourdes Uncilla, a research into the historical building of instruments from the family of lutes and guitars. José Miguel Moreno has recorded for Philips, EMI, Glossa, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Astrée.