Gail Gilmore was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in New Orleans (Louisiana). She studied music at Xavier University in New Orleans and later at the Indiana University in Bloomington. She started her career in Germany. Her real breakthrough took place with the role of Kundry in Parsifal, at first under the direction of Ruth Berghaus and afterwards under the direction of Luigi Pizzi with Peter Hofmann as Parsifal. In this production she appeared in the major opera houses all over the world such as Teatro de le Fenice, La Scala, Bolshoi Theatre, Teatro Colon, Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall (concertant) etc. Thereafter she performed many years in the Arena of Verona as Carmen with Jose Carreras as Don Jose', as Amneris in Aida, Ulrika in Ballo in Mascera and as Azucena in II Trovatore. In the Metropolitan Opera she returned in different productions under James Levine, such as Venus in Tannh user and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos.