- He cohabitates with 2 African parrots (legally domestically bred, of course) Percival (Percy), an African Grey, and Heathcliff, a Greater Vasa. Actually, you probably already know that.
- He decided to become a composer initially because of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
- He’s been teaching a Beatles class for at least 25 years, including 15 years at Stanford University’s Continuing Studies. What began as a casual comment in a department faculty meeting has become an institution. (NB: see what his students say about it on the course page.)
- His “Three B’s” might be Beethoven, Bernstein, and The Beatles.
- Joel was a Captain for the DNC’s Voter Protection Hotline. He is passionate about the right to vote and wishes more people understood civics, how our system of government actually works.
- He has a simple political credo: “We had a Revolution not to have a King, a Civil War not to have slavery, and a World War not to have Fascism.” That’s pretty clear, no?
- 12-year-old Joel corresponded with famed scientist-explorer Thor Heyerdahl and built replicas of the Kon Tiki and the RA without kits. Yikes! As a tween, Joel idolized Heyerdahl and assumed, like Heyerdahl, he would one day join “a merry band of sea-going scientist-explorers” on an expedition, or maybe three. Could that still happen?
- He is a NAUI-certified scuba diver.
- He taught himself basic guitar and was a pretty good rock bassist. Back in the day, in various bands, he played those instruments, plus singing, and trumpet-flugel horn. Later he even performed on full-length public concerts with his students at Seton Hall and Swarthmore.
- He does not know how many times he had to play Feels So Good, but he has survived.
- His main instruments while in school were French horn and trumpet. Who knew he was a brass player?
- In high school he excelled in the sciences so many then assumed Joel would major in them. Indeed, he began his undergrad studies as an anthropology major and then almost minored in coastal geology. Science is still a major interest of his.
- Joel scored a super-natural horror thriller independent feature film called Red Ice. There is a lot of music in Red Ice... and a lot of blood.
- One of most enduring collaborations is with his writer/lyricist brother Seth.
- Joel spent the summer of 1980 on a joint US-NATO USO tour performing an early version of musical he co-authored (Personals) throughout Germany and Italy. He was on the East German border and rode in tanks and armored personnel carriers. He was also marched down to the office to fill out his Selective Service card. It was the summer of IHC (the Iranian Hostage Crisis).
- He met his wife because he wrote a viola concerto – no viola jokes, please – that a panel of judges selected for premiere at Carnegie Hall. His wife-to-be ran the orchestra. “The Viola In My Life,” you might say.