Alexander Joel
Conductor

Alexander Joel seamlessly bridges the gap between the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. Future engagements include his return to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for Puccini’s Tosca, as well as his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper leading performances of Tosca and Bizet’s Carmen, concert with the Japan Philharmonic, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Sicilianna, La Bhoeme at the Aalto Theater Essen, Der Rosenkavalier at Staatsoper Stuttgart, and productions of Verdi’s Falstaff for Iceland Opera, Reykjavik and the Garsington Opera Festival.

Highlights for the 2005/26 season include a new production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Korean National Opera in Seoul, a return to the Hamburg Staatsoper for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv. In Berlin, he conducts Kurt Weill’s Auftstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at the Komische Opera, before heading to the UK for Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the English National Opera. In Vienna, he will conduct the revival of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier at the Volksoper Wien, followed by a new production of Eine Nacht in Venedig to celebrate the Johann Strauss Anniversary Year.

Alexander has been a regular guest at the Royal Opera House since his debut with Puccini’s La Boheme during the 2012/13 season. Other productions have included Carmen, La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Tosca. Other notable highlights include premieres of Madama Butterfly at the Staatsoper Hamburg which is available on DVD with Arthaus, Verdi’s Macbeth at the Royal Danish Opera, new productions of Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Gounod’s Faust at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. Since 2001, he has regularly been engaged at the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Opera Berlin, the Semper Oper Dresden, the Finnish National Opera, the New National Theatre in Toyko, Den Norske Opera, Vlaamse Opera, Deutsche Opera am Rhein, Oper Köln, Hamburg Staatsoper, Teatro Municipale Santiago di Chile, Royal Opera Stockholm, Malmö, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Zürich Opera, and the Grand Théâtre de Geneve.

In the 2016/17 season Alexander conducted Der Ring des Nibelungen in a production by Erich-Uwe Laufenberg with Andreas Schager and Catherine Foster. On the concert platform, he regularly conducts orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Düsseldorf Symphoniker, Duisburg Philharmoniker, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra National de Montpellier, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, BBC Philharmonic, and the RSO Wien.

Alexander Joel held the position of Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatstheater and Staatsorchester Braunschweig from 2007 – 2014 where he conducted symphonic and operatic repertoire including works by Bruckner, Brahms, and Beethoven, and the operas Salome, Lohengrin, Der Rosenkavalier, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal. With an emphasis on the Mahler Symphonies, his performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is available on CD at Corvello Classics.

He was appointed principal guest conductor of the Vlaamse Opera from 2016 – 2018, where he conducted successful producitons of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Das Wunder der Heliane, Verdi’s Don Carlos, La Forza del destino, Otello, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. 

The son of a British mother and a German father, Alexander is a dual national who grew up between Vienna and London. He was educated at Lycée Francais and later went to boarding schools in Switzerland. After a brief stint studying French and English Law at King’s College in London, he moved back to Vienna to study piano at the Academy of Music, before completing hi conducting studies at the Vienna Conservatory of Music with honours in 1996.  He was a prize winner at the European Conducting Competition in Spoleto that same year. He has held various Kapellmeister positions in Baden, Klagenfurt, and the Vienna Volksoper, and was the First Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein from 2001 – 2007.