In his first season as Music Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig Alexander Joel conducted the premieres of La Bohème and Lohengrin and several highly successful concerts. In 2008/09 he will do the new productions of Manon Lescaut and Simone Boccanegra, appear again at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Dresden, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Oper Köln, debut at the New National Theatre Tokyo and conduct concerts with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Duisburg Philharmonic and the Staatsorchester Braunschweig.

 

During the last seasons Alexander Joel gave his concert debuts with the Staatskapelle Dresden, DSO Berlin and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, opened the 150^th anniversary season of the Teatro Municipal Santiago de Chile with a new production of Don Carlo, conducted the new production of Gounod’s Faust at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the revival of Verdi’s Macbeth in Dresden, Bohème in Hamburg and Tosca in Berlin. At the Bayerische Staatsoper München he celebrated the Mozart year by conducting every Entführung aus dem Serail production, including performances on Mozart’s 250^th birthday at the Münchner Opernfestspiele. He also gave guest performances at the Finnish National Opera Helsinki, Oper Köln, the Komische Oper Berlin and the Teatro Regio di Parma.

 

Alexander Joel has conducted numerous renowned orchestras such as MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Deutsche Kammerphil-harmonie Bremen Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, RSO Wien, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Orchestre de Nancy and has collaborated with prominent artsists such as Yuri Bashmet, Julian Rachlin, Mischa Maisky, Sabine Meyer, Juan Diego Florez, Sir Thomas Allen and Catherine Malfitano.

 

Alexander Joel began as Erster Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in the 2001/02 season, conducting higghly acclaimed premieres such as La Wally, Trittico, Macbeth, Hamlet und Entführung aus dem Serail. At the age of 24 he gave his debut at the Opernhaus Nürnberg. Immediately after completing his studies he won the European Conductors Competition Spoleto (Italy) in 1996. His first engagements led him to the Stadttheater von Baden and Klagenfurt as well as the Wiener Volksoper.

 

In 1990, Alexander Joel began studying piano (and later also composition) at the Vienna Academy of Music, before starting his conducting studies in 1991 at the Vienna Conservatory of Music (under Prof. Mark and Prof. Schwarz); he graduated with Honours in 1996. During this time he attended numerous master-classes with renowned conductors (such as Hans Graf, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Gustav Kuhn and Sergiu Celibidache), and participated in the 1996 conducting master-classes in Tanglewood. After university he worked as an assistant to Julius Rudel, Muhai Tang and Gustav Kuhn.

 

2008/09