Robert Yeats is associate professor emeritus of tuba and euphonium. He was a member of the Iowa Brass Quintet since 1969 and he was a founding member of the Cedar Rapids Chamber Brass and the Iowa Chamber Players. He has appeared as a soloist and member of the brass section of many professional bands, orchestras, and quintets, including 19 years with the Cedar Rapids Symphony.

He is well-known as a clinician and has served in this capacity at Iowa's own William Bell Festival as well as with schools, colleges, and music camps nationally. Yeats toured national and recorded with the Iowa Brass Quintet on the Trilogy, C.R.I., and University of Iowa Press labels. Yeats' work at UI included supervision of the UI Wind Library, editing the University of Iowa Guide to Wind and Percussion Literature, coaching chamber music, conducting the Collegium Tubum ensemble as well as teaching classes in brass literature, pedagogy and music education.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Yeats studied at Brown University with Willis Traphagen and later with Walter Beeler, Marvin Howe, James Linn, Joseph Novotny, John Hill, and Cherry Beauregard. He holds a BS from Ithaca College and the MA and MFA from the University of Iowa.