Sara Alswager

Sara Alswager is an elementary general music and choir teacher in the Millard Public Schools District, where she also directs the annual Millard Elementary Honor Choir, a selective ensemble of three nominated 5th graders from each district elementary school. Under her leadership, her students have earned spots in prestigious state and regional honor choirs, including the American Choral Directors Association’s Sing Around Nebraska, where they performed as featured soloists in Lincoln and Blair. Sara herself was a featured conductor at a Sing Around Nebraska Honor Choir event in Kearney. Her 4th and 5th grade ensemble, Swingin' with 'Swager, made history as the only elementary group to perform at the Nebraska Vocal Jazz Festival, winning Clinician's Choice awards two consecutive years while competing against middle school, high school, and collegiate ensembles.

Sara holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Master of Arts in Music Education with a choral conducting focus from the University of St. Thomas. She is also certified in Orff Schulwerk Levels I, II, and III through the American Orff Schulwerk Association at Southern Methodist University. Sara frequently presents her innovative teaching methods at state, regional, national, and university-level workshops. Her research on vocal jazz in elementary music education has been published in Reverberations, an online publication of the American Orff Schulwerk Association, and The Orff Echo, the association’s peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

At SNJ, Sara teaches beginner piano and voice lessons to students of all ages, from elementary to college-aged, as well as mature adult singers. Her vocal instruction emphasizes healthy, age-appropriate techniques that build on students’ strengths while fostering skill development. Sara cultivates an inclusive, student-centered environment where singers feel empowered to make bold musical choices. She coaches a wide range of solo performance genres, including vocal jazz standards/improvisation, folk songs, art songs (in English and other languages), opera arias, musical theater, show choir, and repertoire for SNJ recitals, District Music Contests, NATS competitions, and collegiate music school auditions. Sara is passionate about preparing students for ensemble auditions, such as show choir, vocal jazz, a cappella, musical theater, and honor choirs like All State Choir, and supports students with repertoire memorization for these ensembles.