[2][3] A native of Antwerp, Courboin showed musical aptitude at an early age when he was able to play concertos and symphonies by ear.

He studied piano for five years at the conservatory in his birthplace, and at the age of 12 was appointed organist at Notre Dame College in the same city.

[5] Courboin was appointed, in 1918, civic organist for the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, where he performed on a four-manual Steere organ.

[6] Three years later, Courboin left his Syracuse position to assume the role of organist of Hickory Street Presbyterian Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he played a Casavant organ built to his design.

The move was made in part to ease Courboin's travels to both New York and Philadelphia for his many concert engagements at the Wanamaker stores.

Courboin had a major career break in 1919 when he was chosen by Dr. Russell along with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra to perform the rededication concert for the newly enlarged Wanamaker Organ.

Typical of this second enlargement was the addition of choirs of like-sounding stops, such as Vox Humanas, French Horns, Dulcianas, Muted Strings, etc.

In 1943 he was promoted to Music Director and Organist at the Cathedral where he played a 4 manual Kilgen organ which he had been part of the design and was installed under the direction of his predecessor, Pietro Yon.

Nevertheless, in 1948 Courboin formed a 50-voice boy's choir drawing on St. Ann's Academy on nearby Lexington Avenue as a source of talent.

Courboin was buried alongside his wife Mabel in a cemetery plot shared by the family of Firmin Swinnen, a distinguished Belgian-American organist and long time friend.

Courboin taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore where he had several gifted students including Richard Purvis, Virgil Fox, Claribel Thomson and Claire Coci.

Shortly after midnight as he travelled down a major boulevard he misjudged the direction of a trolley car that made a left turn crossing his path and suddenly found himself unable to stop.

Courboin suffered severe lacerations to the face, fractured his jaw, lost some teeth and came close to losing his life.

This mastery of musical sentiment was validated when Courboin was chosen to be one of the first organists to be recorded on RCA's premier label, the Red Seal.