Texas-born Nick Strimple, music director of the Choral Society of Southern California and the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale, was educated at Baylor University and the University of Southern California. He has been a guest conductor with orchestras throughout the world and has prepared choruses for some of the world's greatest conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Erich Leinsdorf. Strimple is author of the critically acclaimed book Choral Music in the Twentieth Century and co-author of Music in the Holocaust: Survival, Resistance and Response. He is recognized internationally for his work with Shoah music and has served for ten years as a consultant to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. As a respected composer, Strimple has written concert and liturgical works as well as film and television scores, and has also served as arranger (mostly choral arranger) for such entertainers as Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Lou Rawls, and Air Supply.