Keats attended Yale University as an undergraduate, where he studied with Quincy Porter and Paul Hindemith.
He completed his MA at Columbia University, where he studied with Otto Luening and Henry Cowell.
He attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg as a Fulbright Scholar before returning to America.
Keats received his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler.
He also won two Guggenheim Fellowships (1964–65, 1972–73), an NEA grant, and was a Fulbright scholar (1954–55, renewed 1955-56).