Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert

Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert is a leading researcher on how computation, music, and AI intersect. He created music21, a software toolkit widely regarded as opening the floodgates for the use of computers in musicology, corpus studies, and music theory, and invented and co-founded Artusi, the industry leader for online music theory and aural skills instruction.

From 2006–2024, Cuthbert was a professor at MIT, where he created the Music Technology program and the cuthbertLab — its first research laboratory in the field — and led the Programs in Digital Humanities (DH Lab), the largest undergraduate-focused lab at MIT, working at the intersection of computation, humanities, and AI. He received MIT's top two awards for teaching — for teaching in general and for teaching with technology.

Cuthbert earned his Bachelors, Masters, and the Ph.D. at Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude, and is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome (Rome Prize), Villa I Tatti, and Harvard's Radcliffe Institute. In 2024, he moved to Honolulu to join his wife, Dr. Elina G. Hamilton, professor of music at the University of Hawaii.

Cuthbert has lectured and published on Medieval music, including Italian fragments, and also Sub-Saharan African rhythm, Minimalism, and the music of John Zorn.

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Also cited as: Myke Cuthbert · Michael Cuthbert · Michael Scott Cuthbert · Michael Asato Cuthbert