Born in Zürich, Engel first studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Zurich and at the Humboldt University of Berlin, graduating with a master’s degree. He then began studying conducting with Christian Kluttig at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. He subsequently attended master classes with Sir Colin Davis, Peter Eötvös and Ilja Mussin. Grants from the Dirigentenforum [de] of the Deutscher Musikrat (2002–2005) and the foundation of David Zinman's American Academy of Conducting at Aspen complemented his training. Furthermore, he worked as assistant to Sylvain Cambreling, Marc Albrecht and Peter Rundel.