Robert was educated at the boys choir, or maîtrise, of Notre Dame de Paris under the direction of Henry Frémart, Jean Francois, and Cosset Veillot before being appointed master of music at the Senlis Cathedral in 1643.
[1][2][3] In 1663, Louis XIV chose him with Henry Du Mont to occupy one of the four posts of Assistant Master of the Chapelle Royale.
Du Mont and Robert developed the grand motet, the characteristic genre of French baroque sacred music.
Du Mont and Robert retired in 1682 when Louis XIV relocated the court to Versailles, and a competition was held to find four replacements among thirty five contenders; the four chosen were Michel Richard Delalande, Pascal Collasse and two minor composers Nicolas Coupillet, and Guillaume Minoret.
Among those passed over were Paolo Lorenzani, Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Jean-Féry Rebel, Henry Desmarets and Marc-Antoine Charpentier who withdrew from the competition because of illness.