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Nick Strimple taking bows in Pisek, Czech Republic, 1995.

Press Releases and Articles

Article: "Nick Strimple – composer, conductor, scholar" by The Cross-Eyed Pianist (Meet the Artist, 14 June 2017)
"I am composing constantly in my head. Other than that there are two ways I compose depending on the time of year –"
Read the full article here.

Newsletter: Nick Strimple: Music and the Holocaust by Bruno Wang
"The Pure Land Series welcomed world-renowned composer and conductor Dr Nick Strimple from the University of Southern California. Dr Strimple treated us to a fascinating and incredibly moving insight into the role played by music in the lives of those worst affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust during the Second World War." Read More.

Announcement: Nick Strimple receives German-American Friendship Award

Strimple was awarded the prestigious German-American Friendship Award and medal presented by Los Angeles Consul General Hans Jörg Neumann on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany. Learn more here and read about it on the Consul General's Facebook page.

Article: The Beverly Hills Weekly "Choral Connoisseur: Beverly Hills' Music Man Nick Strimple celebrates his 70th birthday" by Madelyn Pariser
Read the interview and learn about Nick's composing history, his introduction to Holocaust-related music, and his professorship in sacred and choral music.

"Nick Strimple has made his mark on the music of the church,” said Randall Bradley, D.M.A., Ben H. Williams Professor of Music and director of Baylor’s church music program. “His tireless work to build bridges among faith communities and to utilize music to foster reconciliation has served to move these discussions to new levels. As a choral conductor, he has conducted in many of the world’s most important halls, and he has worked with top-level choirs and singers. His scholarly work with 19th- and 20th- century choral music has set the standard in the field." Read the full article highlighting Strimple's contrubutions to music and his professional achievements.

Press Release: USC To Host International Academic Conference and Concert on Music as a Tool of Resistance
"Even in the harshest of conditions, people find ways to make music," said Nick Strimple, a professor with USC Thornton School of Music and an expert on Holocaust music. "Music gives victims a power their perpetrators can't take away. Even in World War II, there was a great body of work coming out of the camps. Yiddish folk songs are about life. As they were being brutalized, Jews wrote new songs about life in the ghettos and the camps." Read the entire press release here.

Pre-Publication Book Notes: "Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis" - Patrick Henry, Editor
This volume puts to rest the myth that the Jews went passively to the slaughter like sheep. Indeed Jews resisted in every Nazi-occupied country—in the forests, the ghettos, and the concentration camps. The essays presented here consider Jewish resistance to be resistance by Jewish persons in specifically Jewish groups, or by Jewish persons working within non-Jewish organizations. Resistance could be armed revolt; flight; the rescue of targeted individuals by concealment in non-Jewish homes, farms, and institutions; or by the smuggling of Jews into countries where Jews were not objects of Nazi persecution. Other forms of resistance include every act that Jewish people carried out to fight against the dehumanizing agenda of the Nazis—acts such as smuggling food, clothing, and medicine into the ghettos, putting on plays, reading poetry, organizing orchestras and art exhibits, forming schools, leaving diaries, and praying. These attempts to remain physically, intellectually, culturally, morally, and theologically alive constituted resistance to Nazi oppression, which was designed to demolish individuals, destroy their soul, and obliterate their desire to live.

The contributors are among the most renowned Holocaust authorities in Israel, Europe, Canada, and the United States. The essays treat Jewish resistance in France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the Yishuv, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, and Hungary. Some essays describe children’s resistance and music as resistance. The authors explain why different types of resistance occurred in some places but not in others and how factors such as terrain played a vital role in why one type of resistance took place in some areas but was impossible elsewhere. The importance of chronology and the progress of the war are also considered. This comprehensive handbook will serve as an indispensable guide for Holocaust scholars and general readers.

Article: Beverly Hills Courier "Concert To Mark Nick Strimple’s Retirement After 35 Years At BH Presbyterian Church"
Strimple's farewell concert was announced in this local paper. Read the online article here.

Article: The Beverly Hills Weekly "Nick Strimple, Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church Music Director, to retire"
Strimple talks about his career at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church and his work at USC where he is focused on a new curriculum for master's and doctoral students. Read the entire article here.

Article: The Baylor Line "High Achievement: 2013 Baylor Alumni Association Hall of Fame"
Read the article highlighting Strimple's professional and academic achievements. Strimple received the Distinguished Alumni Award on January 25, 2013. Learn more about this prestigious award here.

Article: Berliner Morgenpost "When Jews and Christians join together in concert"
"This concert marks the first German tour for these seventy Jewish cantors from the USA, Canada, Europe and Israel. Together with twenty professional singers from Berlin, the program was presented under the direction of cathedral cantor Tobias Brommann and cantor Nick Strimple. Entitled “Shared Music - Shared Message,” this unique concert was the first such event in Germany’s history." Read more about Strimple's Berliner Dom concert engagement.

Article: Berlin Daily Mirror (Der Tagesspiegel)
Quote from Benjamin Lassiwe's 2 July 2012 article: "Although there was no request for an autograph, two cantors in particular received a special handshake from Federal President Joachim Gauck: Nick Strimple and Tobias Brommann, who under the motto 'Shared Music – Shared Message: An Ecumenical Gala Concert of the Cantors Assembly,' the world’s largest organization of Jewish Cantors, organized the event in the Berlin Cathedral. Together with his life partner Daniela Schadt, Gauck listened to the beautiful Hebrew songs of the Middle Ages and the impressive works of Louis Lewandowski. Such concerts should take place much more frequently – at least according to Rolf Schieder, Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Humboldt. 'Through memory of those who have died we are good,' said Schieder in his opening remarks. Indeed, Christians and Jews are in need of such opportunities that allow for a shared faith."

Article: Holocaust Violins Live To Play Another Song
Originally published in the Washington Post, this article details "...how another voice from the past is telling the stories of the Holocaust. Violins that outlived the owners who played them in the death camps and Jewish ghettos are being brought back to life by Amnon Weinstein in his shop in Tel Aviv." Read the article, including comments by Nick Strimple.

Pre-Publication Book Notes: "Choral Music In The Nineteenth Century” On Sale Now
Strimple's second volume is an indispensable resource for choral conductors, a valuable guide for choral singers and other music lovers, and an essential text for educators seeking to challenge their students. As with his first book, Nick Strimple’s articulate examination and commentary reviews one-hundred years of choral music literature, offering a straightforward text that is gratifying and enlightening all at once. Read more about Strimple's second book, "Choral Music in the Nineteenth Century."

Video Clip: "Choral Music in the Nineteenth Century"
Strimple discusses his second book. Watch the Artists House Music clip here.

Press Release: World Premiere Music Event in Amarillo
Amarillo native, Nick Strimple, will conduct the World Premiere of his new work, Harpsichord Concerto. Additional sacred music written by Strimple will be conducted by Lanny Allen. Featured on the program are members of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, the First Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, and organist/harpsichordist David Lowe performing on a 1994 Richard Kingston harpsichord. Learn more about the World Premiere of "Harpsichord Concerto."

Article: Miami Herald "Powerful Memorial to Holocaust Victims"
Miami Herald coverage on 18 October 2006. Read the article by Lawrence Budmen.

Press Release: Festival Miami - Florida Premiere of “The Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps”
World-renowned Holocaust music scholar, Nick Strimple and University of Miami Frost School of Music faculty led by Jo-Michael Scheibe join together to present Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers. Featured on the program is the Florida premiere of The Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps. Learn more about the Florida Premiere of "The Holocaust Cantata."

SPEAKING & CONDUCTING HIGHLIGHTS

2015

Cambridge University, England

In-residence

National University of Ireland

Visiting Scholar/Clinician

2014

International Viktor Ullman Conference, Israel

Lecturer

2013

Cal State University, Los Angeles Summer Choral Festival

Lecturer

2012

Cal State University, Los Angeles Summer Choral Festival

Lecturer

American Choral Directors Association National Convention

Lecturer

Cantors Assembly Mission to Germany

Guest Conductor at the Berliner Dom and Munich's Herkulessaal

2011

Janáček Academy of Music and the New Music Encounters Festival - Brno, Czech Republic

Composer-in-Residence
 

American Choral Directors Association National Convention

Lecturer

Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies

Guest lecturer

2010

Boston University

Guest lecturer

Butler University

Guest lecturer

Indianapolis Symphonic Chorus

Pre-concert lecturer

Gustavus Adolphus College

Guest lecturer, composer and homilist

2009

Krakow Jewish Culture Festival

Conductor and lecturer

Polish National Opera

Gala Concert guest conductor

Cantors Assembly

National Convention guest conductor and lecturer

RECENT COMMISSIONS

Corpus Christi

commissioned by The Golden Bridge. Scheduled for premiere 17 September 2016.

Prelude and Fugue

commissioned by Jo-Michael Scheibe for the USC Thornton Chamber Singers. Scheduled for premiere 21 October 2016.

A Christmas Flourish

commissioned by the USC Thornton University Chorus.

The Praise of Christmas

commissioned for Voce by Anne Denholm, The Royal Harpist. Scheduled for premiere in December 2016.

Variations for Organ

commissioned by Weichung Zhou.

As Yet Untitled (for Violin & Piano)

commissioned by Jaroslav Svěcený and Václav Mácha.

Sappho Fragments

commissioned by the ISHA Trio.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Chapter in Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis, edited by Patrick Henry. (Catholic University of America Press, 2014)

Choral Music in the Twentieth and Early Twenty-first Centuries, chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Choral Music, edited by André de Quadros. (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

RECENT MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

Teach Us, O Lord for two-part chrous, organ, and optional congregation, published by Pavane Publishing, 2016.

God Is With Us for unison chrous, organ, and optional congregation, published by Pavane Publishing, 2016.

The Mother of God for SSAA and piano, published by Pavane Publishing, 2016.

In My Craft or Sullen Art for SSAA and piano, published by Pavane Publishing, 2016.

Leshoni Konanta Elohai for cantor, SATB chorus, and piano, published by Pavane Publishing, 2016.

Lord, You've Been Our Dwelling Place for SATB, organ, and optional congregation, published by Pavane Publishing, 2015.

Daily Prayer for SATB, organ, and optional congregation, published by Pavane Publishing, 2015.

Two Little Pieces on Text by Dr. Watts for SATB chorus, published by Pavane Publishing, 2015.

PHOTOS FROM THE ARCHIVE 

Nick Strimple and Kelley O'Connor following a Hollywood Bowl performance, 2007.

Nick Strimple strolling on the Baylor University campus, 26 January 2013.

Nick Strimple with Tram Sparks and David Skinner, Los Angeles, 3 May 2016. Photo by Nick Couchman.