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A student of Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood and the New England Conservatory, he began his career as assistant conductor with the New Jersey Symphony and guest conductor with orchestras in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Rochester and Boston. 

He began teaching at Princeton University in 1977, and in 1993 co-founded the New Jersey Opera Festival, which features twentieth-century operas and new commissions. 

During Pratt’s tenure at Princeton, the orchestra has grown from forty to ninety members; its repertoire, accordingly, has expanded from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works to Mahler’s late symphonies and Stravinsky’s early ballets. 

Pratt directs the Program in Musical Performance and co-directs the Composer’s Ensemble of Princeton University, the latter devoted to new music commissions and performances. He is also involved with the Richardson Chamber Players, an ensemble of private music teachers specializing in new music.