Amanda Paruta

Amanda Paruta is a musicologist and mezzo-soprano working toward a PhD in Critical Studies in Music and Sound at the University of Virginia. Paruta holds undergraduate degrees in music and anthropology from SUNY Buffalo State and master’s degree in musicology from Northwestern University. Drawing on her love of opera, her current research explores relationships between the singing voice and identity. Recently, Paruta presented her work on Nina Simone’s androgynous vocality at the American Musicological Society and Society for American Music annual meetings. She has lectured on topics at the intersection of music and society, including protest and propaganda music of twentieth-century America, the role of gender in music, and the influence of money on music. Her essay, “Working-Class Musicology,” was published by Project Spectrum in 2021, and later appeared in Spanish and German through Arts of the Working Class. She is an acting co-chair for the Society for American Music Student Forum and in the early stages of her doctoral dissertation.