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Craig Resta earned degrees from the University of Maryland College Park (Ph.D.), Indiana University (M.M.), and Baylor University (B.M.E.). His teaching experience has encompassed rural, urban, and suburban settings in each geographical region of the United States having worked in Texas, Indiana, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland and Ohio. Teaching positions include elementary and middle school orchestra and instrumental settings, and extensive work with students from primary school through doctoral levels in music education.

Professor Resta holds research interests in string pedagogy, sociocultural paradigms in music education, educational leadership and arts education advocacy, and educator preparation at multiple levels. He has presented 90+ sessions, posters, clinics, at professional conferences and elsewhere for the Maryland, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Ohio Music Education Associations (MMEA, GMEA, PMEA, NYSSMA, IMEA, OMEA), Music Educators National Conference/National Association for Music Education (MENC/NAFME) National, Eastern, and North Central Divisions, and the GMEA Collegiate Music Educators Conference (CMENC). Other research, clinic, and panel sessions include the Chattanooga Symposium on the History of Music Education (NAFME/HSRIG), American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National Conference, College Music Society (CMS – San Diego 2012, San Antonio 2017, Washington DC 2024), Colloquium for Instrumental Music Teacher Educators (IMTE 2013), Society for Music Teacher Education (SMTE 2019), International Society for Music Education (ISME – China 2010, Brazil 2014, Scotland 2016, Azerbaijan 2018, Brisbane 2022, Helsinki 2024), Cultural Diversity in Music Education (CDIME XII, Finland 2015), European Association of Music in Schools (EAMS – Germany 2021, France 2023), and South African Society for Music Teachers (Gqeberha 2025). Invited talks and visits have been at the University of New Mexico, the University of Michigan, Towson University and the University of Tennessee, among others. Sabbatical lectures, research and residencies in 2016 and 2025 are travels to Canada, Thailand, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, South Africa, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, the United States and elsewhere.

His work is published in the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, Maryland Music Educator, New Jersey Tempo, Ohio TRIAD, and American String Teacher. He is a contributor to the second edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music produced by Oxford University Press, who also released his book, Valuing Music in Education: A Charles Fowler Reader (2017). This collection of 50 essays with critical commentary highlights the role and importance of music and arts education in schools and society, tailored to myriad viewpoints, audiences, and perspectives.

Dr. Resta has adjudicated and conducted school music events in Texas, Maryland, Georgia and Ohio, worked as Advocacy Chair on the Maryland MEA Executive Board, and is a past Music and Education Scholar for the Ohio Humanities Council. He was an editorial and board member of Excellence in Performing Arts Research (2018-2022), the Ohio MEA Research Committee (2010-2020), on the Editorial Board of the national and international juried journal Contributions to Music Education (2010-2013) and completed a seven-year term as the longest serving editor-in-chief (2013-2020). Others are the Kent State Music Curriculum Series (2019 forward) and the International Society for Music Education History Standing Committee (member since 2014 and Chair from 2024).

As a collaborative curriculum designer, Professor Resta is a co-founder of the KSU Online Master of Music Education degree launched in 2010, which has 800+ graduates in all 50 states and several international countries. His revision of the Kent State Ph.D. in Music Education in 2010-2011 led to one of the largest doctoral programs in the United States, with an average enrollment of 22+ students. This includes mentorship of 120+ doctoral research projects, 12+ dissertations, many committees and qualifying exams, numerous student conference presentations and publications, and impacting K12, tertiary, and community music programs throughout Ohio, the US and abroad.

Principal violin and performance practice teachers include Kevin Lawrence, Thomas Binkley, Stanley Ritchie, and Davis Brooks. Research mentors are Marie McCarthy, Harry Elzinga, Terry Kuhn, and Bill Anderson. Performing experience includes programs at The Round Top and Princeton Festivals, The Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals, and The Bloomington and Washington (DC) Early Music Festivals. Concert and workshop appearances include venues in Texas, Indiana, Utah, Tennessee, Ohio, California, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Massachusetts and New Jersey; and abroad in Switzerland, Germany, China, England and Ireland. He is a member of Armonia Nova and Bernardus Medieval Ensemble, scholarship-based groups focusing on historical and medieval-renaissance-baroque repertoire, literature and culture. Notable performances include those at Miller Chapel Princeton (New Jersey US), DACOR Bacon House (Washington, D.C.), Christ Church Old Town (Alexandria, VA), Exeter Cathedral (Exeter UK), Buckfast Abbey (Devon UK), and St. Audoen’s Parish (Dublin IE).

An instrumental and string specialist, Dr. Resta is currently Professor of Music Education, teaching on the faculty at Kent State since 2008. He works with bachelors, masters and doctoral students, leads courses in orchestral pedagogy, pre-service music teacher education, instrumental music teaching, educational inquiry and foundational studies (history, philosophy, sociology), and distance learning and technologies, along with dissertation advising, research mentorship, and career advocacy, among other activities. 

Learn more about Kent State's Music Education programs