Joel Eric Suben was born in New York City on May 16, 1946, and grew up in Cortland, New York. He received his degrees from the Eastman School of Music (B. Mus.,1969) and Brandeis University (Ph.D., 1980).
At age 21, he won a nationwide composers’ competition sponsored by the publisher H.W. Gray in conjunction with the American Guild of Organists. Other prizes included the 1981 Music Teachers National Association Composer of the Year Award (“Sonatina”), the 1986 Washington Square Contemporary Music Series Competition (“Idyls”), and the 1987 Bucks County Symphony composition prize (“Academic Overture”).
He was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship (1977-1979) and a MacDowell Fellowship (1977). During his career, he composed 75 published works, ranging from chamber music to symphonic and choral works.
Suben was perhaps better known during his lifetime for his performances of the works of other composers. While living in Poland as a Fulbright Fellow, he organized and conducted orchestral and choral programs of contemporary American music in conservatories and major concert halls. At the invitation of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, he led numerous archival recordings and in 1998 he made his conducting debut with the Warsaw National Philharmonic at the Warsaw Autumn Festival.
He conducted some 500 works from more than 100 composers, including many contemporary American composers whose works he championed as part of his nonprofit, Save the Music, Inc. Many of these performances have been released as commercial recordings. He was also the music director of several college orchestras, including the College of William and Mary and Wellesley College.
He died in New York City on August 15, 2023.
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