He earned a B.M. in composition in 2005 at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, studying with Frederic Rzewski and Michael Fiday and completed his M.M. in composition at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009, studying with Zack Browning, Erik Lund, and Scott Wyatt. Collins holds an M.F.A. from Princeton University, where he is currently a PhD candidate and has been a student of Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, and Barbara White. His music has been performed by ensembles such as Mobius Percussion, The Living Earth Show, Dither, The Guidonian Hand, loadbang, Ogni Suono, Newspeak, and So Percussion. He is currently based in Philadelphia.