Charles Alexander Joel^[1] (born 1971) is a British/German pianist and conductor.

Career

Born in London, Joel began his conducting career in Nuremberg, followed by positions at Baden bei Wien, Klagenfurt and the Vienna Volksoper. From 2001 to 2007 he held the position of Erster Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg.^[2]

He has served as guest conductor for numerous orchestras in Europe and elsewhere, including the Bavarian State Opera, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Hamburg State Opera. Outside Germany, Joel has conducted at the Teatro Regio in Parma, the Finnish National Opera, Municipal Theater of Santiago, Chile, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, among others.

From the 2007–2008 to the 2013–2014 season Alexander Joel was the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of Staatstheater Braunschweig and principal conductor of Staatsorchester Braunschweig, succeeding Jonas Alber, who had led the orchestra since 1997.^[3]

Personal life

Joel was born in London in 1971.^[4] He is a grandson of Karl Amson Joel. His parents were Audrey and Howard Joel.

His father, born Helmut Joel in Nuremberg, had immigrated with his parents to the United States as refugees from the Nazi persecution of Jews. His father worked in New York as an engineer, where he married his first wife, Rosalind. They had two children, Judith Joel^[1] and Billy Joel, the American singer/songwriter who is one of the world's best-selling music artists, and they adopted their niece, Judy.^[5] After they divorced in 1957, Howard returned to Europe where he married Alexander's mother.