[2] Born in Beirut, Joelle Khoury left Lebanon for the United States after the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War.

Returning to Lebanon several years later, she received a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Saint Joseph University and a piano diploma from the Lebanese Higher Conservatory of Music.

She has been invited on Extra-muros residencies in France (2002 and 2004), the Czech Republic (2006),[3] Switzerland (2011, through Pro Helvetia)[4] and the United States (2013) as a MacDowell Colony fellow, where she worked on her multimedia performance Palais de femmes.

In 1995, Khoury founded In-Version, a jazz quintet performing original compositions that combine a contemporary bebop style with complex counterpoint lines.

[9] Her "Variations on Imaginary Folk Dances" for string orchestra and voice rearranged traditional Middle Eastern songs on a contemporary classical music basis.

[11] Both pieces, conducted by Andris Veismanis,[12] are based on Middle Eastern folk music, and yet expressed in contemporary style, rendered by the Lebanese alto Fadia Tomb El Hage.

A symphonic version of these two pieces was also performed in May 2013 by the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra at Saint Joseph University Church, Beirut.

[21] Soliloquy, a symphonic composition in three movements, written for the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra and performed in May 2005, at Saint Joseph Church, Beirut.

Tidbits, Series of short variations on an elusive theme by the viola, in its own turn inspired by a Middle Eastern chant, 2018.