Joel Navarro is Associate Professor of Music at Calvin College where he teaches conducting and directs the Capella, the Oratorio Society, and the Campus Choir. Prior to this appointment, he was one-time Chair of the Choral Conducting Department and served as an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines College of Music for 16 years. He obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting at Michigan State University where he studied under Drs. Charles Smith, Jonathan Reed, and David Rayl.

He is known internationally as the former Music Director and Conductor of the Ateneo de Manila University Glee Club which won top prizes in choral competitions in Cantonigros (1983), Tolosa (2000), Arezzo (1983), Riva del Garda (2000), Llubljana (2000), Cork (2000), Tours (2000, and 2008) and Marktoberdorf (2001).

A recipient of numerous awards in performance and education in the Philippines, he is widely known as conductor, educator, clinician, lecturer, writer, singer, recording artist, composer, arranger, stage actor, record producer, and music consultant. He was Vice-Chairman of the Philippine Federation for Choral Music and a consultant for the College Choir Division of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists. His choirs have performed with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for national television, state receptions, and national and international choir festivals. In August of 2002, he gave a lecture at the 6th World Symposium of Choral Music in Minneapolis.

His other passion is composition. He continues to compose and arrange choral music for professional, university, community, and church choirs.