Born in Treuenbrietzen, from 1730 on the advice of a relative Nichelmann attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he was accepted by Johann Sebastian Bach.
[1] He may have been the soprano that Bach had in mind when he composed his cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen.
[2] He studied composition and was taught to play keyboard instruments by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
[3] In 1739 Nichelmann moved to Berlin, where he continued his studies with Johann Joachim Quantz and Carl Heinrich Graun.
An offer from King Frederick the Great of Prussia brought him again to Berlin, where in 1744 he became the second harpsichordist of the royal operatic ensemble,[4] ("zweiter Cembalist der königl.