Alexander Joel (conductor)

Charles Alexander Joel (born 1971 in London, England) is a British pianist and conductor.
Career.
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 Erste Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
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 (Hamburgische Staatsoper). Outside Germany, Joel has conducted at the Teatro Regio in Parma, Italy, the Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Municipal Theater of Santiago, Chile, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, among others.
From the 2007/2008 to the 2013/14 season Alexander Joel was the musical director (Generalmusikdirektor) of Staatstheater Braunschweig and principal conductor of Staatsorchester Braunschweig, succeeding Jonas Alber, who had led the orchestra since 1997.
Personal life.
Joel is a grandson of Karl Amson Joel and the half brother of American singer/songwriter Billy Joel and his sister. His parents were Audrey and Howard Joel. His father, born in Nuremberg, Germany as Helmut Joel, had immigrated with his parents to the United States as refugees from Nazi persecution of Jews. He worked in New York as an engineer, where he married his first wife. They had two children together. After they divorced in 1957, Howard Joel returned to Europe. He married Audrey.