​“A reluctant but dutiful altar boy and fan of comic books, detective stories and custard doughnuts, my first inkling I might pursue music came not when I sang (again reluctantly) in the church choir, but when my seventh grade teacher – a nun – produced a ukulele and inspired me to plead for one of my own.”​

Nicholas Scarim grew up in the Chicago area, studying theory and improvisation with legendary jazz saxophonist Joe Daly and jazz piano with Jack Hubal. After entering the conservatory he became increasingly involved with classical music. He moved to New York City in 1977 and began writing solo, chamber and orchestral music, several operas and a ballet  - all before the end of 1980. In the early 80s, he was a pioneer in writing educational software for personal computers such as the TRS80, Commodore64 and Atari800. Contacts in the computer world led to his writing the theme music for some of the biggest selling computer games in those early years of personal computers, such as Spy vs Spy, Sesame Street and Boulderdash. By 1985 he had "retired" from the computer industry and returned full-time to composing and teaching. In the late '80s and '90s he produced several large scale chamber works such as his Piano Quintet and first String Quartet, and completed his Serenade for Guitar and Orchestra, as well as his first and second symphonies. His works have been published by Belwin Mills, World Book, Inc., Music Theater International, and others.

​From the mid 90s onward, he became increasingly involved with arts education, both in research and in practice. While working in music education residencies funded by Meet the Composer, as well as by the Annenberg Foundation, he participated in a multi-year research project on the assessment of arts instruction funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.  

​In 2000, the Carnegie Hall commissioned him to create a work (lyrics and music) to allow thousands of schoolchildren to come to a major concert hall in their own cities and sing and play along with a full symphony orchestra. His "A Simple Melody" has been performed by an estimated 500,000 schoolchildren over the years, along with the regional orchestras in 18 American and Canadian cities.