Joan was born in the city of Manresa in Catalunya, where he started playing the double bass. After finishing his initial studies, he moved to London where he studied with Thomas Martin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2005. Soon after that he moved to Japan as a founding member of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra where he was principal double bass until 2008.
In 2008 he moved back to Europe and freelanced in a number of orchestras in the UK and Spain. In the same year, he was a member of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Academy under the direction of Pierre Boulez. From 2009 Joan became a member of the prestigious Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra which greatly stimulated his development as a musician working alongside great artists such as Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell and Maxim Vengerov amongst others while touring worldwide. In 2010 Joan was appointed Co-Principal Double Bass in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Spain, a position he held until he was appointed Associate Principal Double Bass with the NZSO in April 2013 and Section Principal in 2017.