Nick Strimple was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1946 and studied at Baylor University and the University of Southern California (receiving both his MM and DMA). A performer-scholar of Czech music, in 1985 he conducted the first 20th-century performances in America of Dvořák’s oratorio Saint Ludmila, and he has also directed premieres of works by such 20th-century Czech composers as Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein, Jan Hanuš, Petr Eben, and Arnošt Parsch. Also well-versed in music related to the Holocaust, Strimple organized and conducted two concerts in conjunction with the Terezin Then and Now exhibition at the Pauline Hirsh Gallery of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and later served on the California State Legislature Working Group for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education. He is currently professor of choral music at the University of Southern California and the music director of the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale.
