Joel Hands-Otte graduated from Frankston High School in 2013. He is a Melbourne-based music enthusiast with a career as a woodwind musician, educator and arranger. Joel has performed regularly with Melbourne Opera since 2018, appearing on a range of clarinets in 36 opera seasons throughout Victoria. As a freelance musician, he has performed and recorded across classical, musical theatre, jazz, video game and anime concert productions on a variety of clarinets and saxophones. Joel also collaborates with his wife, orchestrating and arranging music for a variety of video game and Japanese anime music projects.

Joel came back in 2026 to speak to a Year 12 Music Performance students about his music career pathway to date.