Sara Jane Nicholson grew up in Logan, Utah, where she studied piano and violin. She took private lessons on both instruments, and participated in her award-winning school orchestra program, as well as the USU piano conservatory and Cache Youth Orchestra. She participated in countless solo & ensemble festivals and soloed with the Cache Chamber Orchestra her senior year in high school.
She attended Ricks College for 2 years as a music major. While there, she won the concerto competition and soloed with the Ricks College Symphony Orchestra. She then attended BYU where she studied Violin Performance and Pedagogy. She did graduate work in musicology and during that time decided that she wanted to teach orchestra in the public school system. As she continued the musicology coursework, she pursued the qualifications needed to teach school orchestra—a Music Education degree.
Following her studies at BYU, she began teaching orchestra at Woods Cross High, South Davis Junior High and 5 elementary schools in the Bountiful area. During the 16 years that she taught orchestra, her students consistently achieved superior ratings and won awards for their excellence in performance.
She currently teaches some private students, but spends the majority of her time raising her two children.