Eli Eban was born in New York City and received his early musical training in Israel, studying the clarinet with Richard Lesser and Yona Ettlinger.
Shortly thereafter he was invited by Zubin Mehta to join the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he spent thirteen seasons playing and recording all the major orchestral repertoire under internationally renowned conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Georg Solti, and Klaus Tennstedt.
He has been guest artist with the Alexander, Audubon, Orion, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv and Ying Quartets, and was a frequent participant of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.
His summers are spent performing and teaching at the Sarasota Music Festival and playing principal clarinet in the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Recent engagements include a world tour as acting principal clarinetist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Lorin Maazel, and critically acclaimed performances at London's Wigmore Hall.