The tenor Gerben Houba has been a singer all his life. At an age of seventeen years, his music teacher at secondary school Cees Mobach inspired him to take singing lessons. His present coaches are Marcel Reijans and Paul Triepels and before that his singing teacher was Geert Bergs. He attended masterclasses by Margreet Honig and Kurt Equiluz and he was given actinglessons by Maarten Vonk. In august 2010 he recieved the Honorary Award for Outstanding Musicianship at the Peter de Grote festival, Groningen. 
   As a concert soloist he debuted in 2007 in the Main Hall of the concertgebouw in Amsterdam with a piece of Helmut Barbe. Furthermore he sang Stravinsky's Cantata and The Voynich Cyphermanuscript of Hanz-Peter Kyburz. He performed the latter piece in the Main Hall of Cite de la Musique in Paris. Moreover, besides in more present-day music, Gerben can also be heard as a soloist in traditional oratories of composers such as Mozart, Händel and Bach. Next to many arias in the oratories of Bach, Gerben also sings the part of the evangelist in the Johannes Passion as well as in the Mattheus Passion of Bach.

   In the field of opera he was a soloist in several productions, such as the title part in Orfeo of Monteverdi, in Thyeste of Jan van Vlijmen and in 2009 he sang the title part in Dichtertje, a new composed opera of Harke-Jan van der Meulen, after an equally titled novel of Nescio.

   Gerben is also a member of the "Quatre Bouches" quartet. Furthermore he is connected as a remplacant to the Netherlands Radio Choir and since 1995 he has been a member of the permanent cast of Cappella Amsterdam under the guidance of Daniel Reuss.