Joseph Koykkar is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he is Music Director for the Dance Program. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Indiana University and the University of Miami (DMA 1983).

His principal composition teachers have been John Eaton, Dennis Kam, and John Downey. His compositions have been performed extensively throughout the United States and in Europe and South America by such ensembles as the New York New Music Ensemble, North/South Consonance (New York), California EAR Unit (Los Angeles), Synchronia (St. Louis), Relache (Philadelphia), Present Music (Milwaukee), Compagnia Brasileira De Music (Sao Paulo,Brazil) and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has composed in a variety of media including chamber music, orchestral scores, music for dance, film/video scores, and electronic music. He was composer-in-residence for the NOW Festival '96 at Capital University in Columbus, OH. His compositions are published by MMB Music, Inc., Belwin-Mills, and See Saw Music. In September 1992 Northeastern Records (Boston, MA) released a compact disc, EXPRESSED IN UNITS, featuring six of his chamber music compositions. In March 1994 MMC Recordings released a recording of his orchestral composition, COMPOSITE, performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony of Bratislava, Slovakia under the direction of Robert Black. TRIPLE PLAY for piano, computer and MIDI Disklavier is recorded on the SEAMUS CD Volume 3. St. Louis's new music ensemble, Synchronia, has released his composition, DOUBLE TAKE, on their first CD in December 1995. He has been the recipient of thirteen consecutive annual awards from ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) and has received an Individual Artists Award in Music Composition from the Wisconsin Arts Board. Among his other awards are grants from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been a fellow at the International Summer Workshop for New Music in Darmstadt, West Germany, the Music of Our Time Seminar at Indiana University, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Conductors Institute American Composer/Conductor Program and the Montanea Festival in Bern, Switzerland. He has been a past president of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers (1990-93).