"[Houben] emphasises the importance of ‘listening’ and ‘awareness’, two words that define her own approach to making music. Her chords sing their whole song, from peak to fade; if you stay in the moment, you’ll actually hear them in the ‘silent’ passages of her pieces. You can listen to them disappear." — HCMF
Eva-Maria Houben has been performing works for the organ for more than 30 years. She is part of the “wandelweiser-group” of composers and has several recordings on their label Wandleweiser Editions, as well as releases on Another Timbre, Sawyer Editions, LINE, ftarri and her own Diafini imprint.
Her compositions include works for the organ, piano, clarinet, trombone, violoncello and other solo instruments, works for voice and piano, for wind and chamber ensembles, for orchestra and for voice and orchestra, for works for choir, and electroacoustic music.
She has also published extensively on the subject of contemporary music, with both contemporary composers and traditional music listened to with ‘new ears’.
Eva-Maria Houben (born 1955) studied Music Education at Folkwang-Musikhochschule Essen and the organ with Gisbert Schneider. Following her exams she taught both German and Music Education at Secondary School. She received her doctorate and postdoctoral lecturing qualification in musicology and was called for lectures at Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg and Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf. Between 1993 —2021 Professor Houben lectured at Dortmund University`s “Institut für Musik und Musikwissenschaft” on music theory and contemporary music.