Robert Finley was born in Hull, England, in 1950. He started to play the piano at the age of seven.
In 1960 he won a scholarship to study piano and composition at Trinity College of Music in London.

In 1968 he went to the University of Sussex to study electronic engineering, but continued his musical studies
with various concert pianists including Norma Fisher and Albert Ferber.

He also studied in masterclasses with Louis Kentner, David Wilde, Vlado Perlemuter (at Dartington), Bernard Roberts,
and with Jorge Bolet (during the Edinburgh Festival and at the Library of Congress in Washington DC).

In 1976 he was awarded the Associate of the Royal College of Music Diploma in pianoforte performing with honours.

He has given many recitals in the UK, Israel, Argentina and the USA, and has played on local radio and television.
In the USA he played at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, the First and Second Church of Boston (Liszt 1986 Centennial Recital)
and at Georgia State University in Atlanta (during the Liszt Festival).
He has also performed the Rachmaninoff 1st and 3rd, Schumann, Mozart K414, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn concertos with various symphony orchestras.

He has taught a number of students in his spare time. He also enjoys playing chamber music and has played in various workshops with his brother
who is a violinist in Connecticut and at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

He is a member of the American Liszt Society.

In 1980 he emigrated to the United States and lives near Boston, Massachusetts. He works for a large engineering corporation designing radio communication systems.

His equipment for midi sequencing includes a Yamaha Clavinova, a Roland JV1080, and a 386 PC running Midisoft's "Studio for Windows" and "Cakewalk 3.0".