Michaelson was born to artistic parents. Her father is composer Carl Michaelson and her mother Elizabeth Egbert is a sculptor as well as the Executive Director & President of the Staten Island Museum. Her brother, only known as "Mr. Michaelson" is a math teacher at Westview High School in San Diego, California. She took up piano at age 5. She had trained until age 7 at Manhattan's Third Street Music School and continued for many more years at the Jewish Community Center of S.I.'s Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute. There she met vocal coach Elizabeth McCullough, who worked with her through high school.

She is a graduate of Staten Island Technical High School and Binghamton University, where she received a degree in theatre.

--Wikipedia