Robert Alan Cutietta is a MusiQuE Peer Reviewer and a music faculty member at the University of Southern California. He is best known as an educator, author, researcher, musician, and arts leader. Cutietta earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cleveland State University, a Doctorate from The Pennsylvania State University, and a leadership Certificate from the Disney Institute. He has held tenured professorships at Montana State University, Kent State University, The University of Arizona, and The University of Southern California. His seven books include “What Music Schools Learned from the Pandemic” [Routledge Press, 2025]"Who Knew?! Questions you never thought to ask about Classical Music" [Oxford University Press, 2017] and two editions of "Raising Musical Kids: A Parent's Guide (Oxford University Press, 2001, 2013). He also is the author of eight book chapters and over 50 articles in a host of national and international journals. For ten years he hosted a radio segment called “Ask the Dean” on the largest Classical music station in the U.S. He has been involved with the GRAMMY awards since 1992 as a host of GRAMMY in the Schools and a member of two Blue Ribbon Adjudication Committees. During his 20 years as Dean of USC’s Thornton School of Music he was credited with expanding the definition of a Music School by leading the creation of many innovative degrees. In Los Angeles, he composed for television and movies. He wrote and performed all the music for Lost Legends of the West, a 13-episode folk history of the American West which received two EMMY Nominations.