Born in Lisbon in 1979, Faria studied the piano from the age of four, and later composition with two eminent Portuguese figures, João Madureira at the Academia de Música de Santa Cecília and Eurico Carrapatoso at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He then completed master’s and doctoral degrees in composition at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers were David Sawer, Kenneth Hesketh and Mark-Anthony Turnage.

After an eight-year spell of teaching in Portugal, he spent a year as a composition and music theory professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2011–12). In 2015 he settled in Wales, as a lecturer at Cardiff University.

He has received commissions from the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the National Ballet of Portugal and the London Symphony Orchestra. His music has also been performed by the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Lontano and the Endymion Ensemble. Recognition for his work has included the Lopes-Graça Prize in Portugal and the PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Memorial Award in the UK.