Laura Moore Pruett holds the M.M. in musicology with a certificate in early music from the Florida State University (FSU) and a Ph. D. in historical musicology at FSU with a dissertation titled “Louis Moreau Gottschalk, John Sullivan Dwight, and the Development of Musical Culture in the United States, 1853-1865.” Pruett is from Lafayette, Louisiana, and received her Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Vocal Performance from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. She sang with the FSU Renaissance a cappella vocal group Cantores Musicae Antiquae for five years, and also performed Neapolitan and other Italian folk music with L'Orchestra Italien.

Pruett has presented papers at regional and national meetings of the College Music Society, the American Musicological Society, and the Society for American Music. Pruett’s publications include an article on Ernst von Dohnányi and a forthcoming article based on her dissertation research for Nineteenth-Century Music Review. At FSU and MTSU Pruett has taught courses in Sight-Singing and Ear Training, Music Theory, Music History and Literature, Opera Literature, and music courses for non-music majors. Her research interests include American music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, music and culture, the philosophy of music, and music criticism.