Nick Strimple

b. 1946

Nick Strimple is Professor of Choral and Sacred Music in the USC Thornton School of Music, Affiliated Faculty in USC Dornsife College's Jewish Studies Program and Music Director of the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale. He has composed over 130 works in virtually all genres (including over 60 works for Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, which he served for thirty-five years as Director of Music), receiving commissions from the Vienna International Organ Festival, J. Paul Getty Museum, London Youth Choir and other prominent organizations. He also worked many years in Hollywood, composing several film and television scores and serving as arranger and/or director for Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Air Supply and other leading artists.

In addition to composing, Strimple is active as a conductor and scholar. He has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices, the Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera, the Nuremberg Symphony, the Prague Radio Choir and the Slovak Radio Orchestra, among others. His recordings of American and Jewish music are released on the Naxos, Music and Arts and 4-Tay labels. He is the author of the critically acclaimedChoral Music in the Twentieth Century and Choral Music in the Nineteenth Century and has contributed chapters to several other books, including theCambridge Companion to Choral Music and the multi-award winning Jewish Resistance against the Nazis.

Nick Strimple is particularly active as a performer/scholar of music related to the Holocaust and has presented lectures and/or concerts on the subject at numerous distinguished institutions and festivals, including Cambridge University, Oxford University, Yale University, Wellesley College, the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival. He has received commendations from the United States Congress, the California Legislature and, in 2016, was awarded the German-American Friendship Medal by the German government.