Robert Ceely was born in Torrington, Connecticut and grew up in Longmeadow and Williamstown in Massachusetts.
He attended the Pine Cobble School (?—1945), Williston Academy (Class of 1948), Hobart College (1948/49), the New England Conservatory (Class of 1954) where he studied with Francis Cooke. Further studies were with Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner at Mills College where he earned the degree of Master of Arts (1961), and with Roger Sessions. Edward Cone and Milton Babbitt at Princeton University (1958/59).
In 1963-64 he worked in the Electronic Music Studio in Milan as guest of The Italian Government. His compositions include solo, chamber, and orchestral music as well as music for tape alone and tape with instruments. His ballet “Beyond the Ghost Spectrum”, with choreography by James Waring commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation, was performed at Tanglewood in August, 1969, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. His opera” Automobile Graveyard”, after a play by Fernando Arrabal, was presented at the New England Conservatory in 1995.