Robbie Lee, born and raised in Tucson, Arizona began playing alto saxophone at age 12, later switching to piano. Soon after, he joined the Tucson Jazz Institute, a community music program dedicated to giving students opportunities to play and develop meaningful relationships through music. With TJI he was given a firm grounding in the traditional forms of jazz from Trad to Post-Bop and was encouraged to develop his own voice and keep an open mind. By the age of 14, Lee had began performing at various venues on a weekly basis. In both 2010 and 2014 he was given opportunities to tour and play at numerous jazz festivals in Europe with TJI including Jazz a Vienne, the Umbria Jazz Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Throughout high school, Lee was given awards for performance and composition by YoungArts, DownBeat, The Next Generation Jazz Festival, and the Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival.  These awards include Outstanding Tripler and the Ella Fitzgerald outstanding soloist award presented by Wynton Marsalis at the Essentially Ellington Festival. In 2015 Downbeat Magazine awarded him Outstanding Composition for Large Ensemble as part of the 38th Student Music Awards. He has had the honor of playing with Brice Winston, Charles Mcpherson, Ray Drummond, Candido Camero, and Jimmy Heath.