Derek Gimpel was born in Germany. He studied history of art and history before working as staff director at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin. He has directed music theatre pieces by composers ranging from Monteverdi, Handel and Mozart to Gerard Grisey and Alexander Goehr, working with early music ensembles such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and contemporary music ensembles such as Klangforum Wien. Last year he directed Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Donizetti) with the Dresdner Philharmonic. He also works as an associate director for opera productions worldwide.  He has worked closely with Harry Kupfer, most recently as choreographer for his production of Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg (Wagner) at the Zurich opera. He also worked as  project manager and assistant director for the recent Ring Cycle co-production with Daniel Barenboim at La Scala and the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin. His next production will be Punch and Judy (Birtwistle) in Berlin. Further upcoming projects include Yevgeny Onegin (Tchaikovsky) in Cluj, a touring vocal installation of Olivier Messiaen's song cycle Poemes Pour Mi with Deborah York and Julius Drake in Germany and Belgium and a staged performance of Schumann's version of St. John Passion (Bach) in Barcelona.

At the Israeli Opera he directed:
Les Contes d'Hoffmann (2014)