He is the father of the wind musician and composer Armin Suppan.
In 1961, he went to Freiburg im Breisgau as a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, first to the Institute for East German Folklore, and since 1963 to the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv as a musicological consultant.
Assistant professorships took him to the University of Göttingen in 1991/92, to Innsbruck in 1992/93 and to Salzburg in 1991/92 and 1996/97.
[1] Suppan co-founded and directed a number of international societies: in 1955 the Johann Joseph Fux Society (1995 to 2001 President), in 1967 the Study Group for the Research of Historical Folk Music Sources in the ICTM (co-chair until 1988), in 1965 the International Society for Jazzforschung [de] (since then advisory board), 1974 the International Society for the Research and Promotion of Wind Music [de] (President until 2000), in 1981 the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (President from 1995 to 1997).
He was a member of the Presidium of the Deutscher Musikrat from 1973 to 1978 and of the ISME Research Commission from 1975 to 1981.