Her mother worked as a special education teacher, her father was a machine steiger and presbyter in the Protestant village church of Hoerstgen [de].
After her Abitur she studied school music at the Folkwang University of the Arts (1974–78)[1] and artistic organ playing with Gisbert Schneider (1978–80).
After obtaining her doctorate (1986, with Norbert Linke) and her habilitation (1990) in musicology, Houben became a lecturer at the University of Duisburg (1987–93) and the Robert Schumann Hochschule (1992/93).
She organizes concerts with compositions by students, who are also given the opportunity to exchange ideas with experienced colleagues in her series of Composer Portraits (since 1993 among others with Nikolaus Brass, Violeta Dinescu, Vinko Globokar and Adriana Hölszky).
Her special interest lies beyond these integrative performance projects, in which musicians and amateur work together, and the creation of Raumklang-installations, which at a certain location (for example in a church) point the way ahead to an upcoming concert or allow it to resonate afterwards.