American tenor Robert Gambill established a successful operatic career as a lyric tenor in the 1980s before shifting to the dramatic tenor repertory in 1995. He was an exchange student studying German language and literature. After graduation from the University of Hamburg in 1976 he continued with vocal studies he had begun at Hamburg's Music Academy. He received engagements at La Scala in Milan, Frankfurt, and Geneva while studying. He joined the Wiesbaden State Theater in 1981, remaining through 1983. From 1984 to 1987, he was a member of the Zurich Opera. After that he performed regularly at leading opera houses such as the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris, Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, and major houses of Moscow, Berlin, and elsewhere. Further study and maturity of his voice took him from the lyric repertory to the dramatic. He began with The Painter in Berg's Lulu at the Salzburg Festival and Narraboth in Strauss' Salome at Stuttgart and London. He sang the title roles of Offenbach's Barb-Bleue, Weber's Oberon, and Wagner's Parsifal, and other roles such as Max in Der Freischütz, and Florestan in Fidelio. He is also a prominent concert singer, with Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Dvorak's Stabat Mater, and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in his repertory. He has recorded Rossini's Stabat Mater, Stockhausen's Donnerstag als Lichtt, several Händel roles, and Graun's Cesare e Cleopatra.