Meet our Extraordinary Team
Nimbus' outstanding faculty and staff are current industry professionals. They range from award-winning producers to experts in the latest hardware and technology. You can even catch them singing opera on any given day!
Founders
Garth Richardson
President/CEO/Co-Founder
GGGarth began working at Nimbus 9 in Yorkville, Toronto (Jack Richardson’s own studio) at just 15 years old. His first album credit was as second engineer for Bob Seger’s now legendary, “Night Moves.”
GGGarth later landed a job at Phase One Studio in Toronto, where he trained alongside Bob Ezrin, Brian Christian, Michael Wagener and, of course, his dad, Jack Richardson, CM.
GGGarth has worked with some of music’s biggest acts including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Taylor Swift, Rise Against, Bob Seger, 2013 Best British Band winners, Biffy Clyro, and multiple Edison award-winning Dutch band, Kensington. GGGarth also produced and engineered Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut album, which earned him a Grammy nomination, thereby securing his place among the world’s top recording engineers/producers.
GGGarth has been nominated for, and won, several Juno awards over the course of his career, with multiple nominations for the Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award. This is of special importance, as the award is named in honour of GGGarth’s father, Jack Richardson, CM (considered the godfather of the Canadian recording industry).
In 2002, GGGarth opened The Farm Studios in Gibsons, BC. A seven-acre working farm, it has become a farm of a different sort – a creative one. It is a state-of-the-art, inviting and inspiring space that has been built using GGGarth’s decades of experience and dedication to the artist and the art.
GGGarth serves as an advisor to several initiatives, always making time to donate his expertise for charitable causes.
Bob Ezrin
Co-Founder
Bob Ezrin is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist. He is best known for his work with artists such as Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezrin’s career in music had spanned four decades and as such, his production work continues into the 21st century, with acts such as Deftones and Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Since co-founding interactive media company 7th Level in 1993, Ezrin has branched out into philanthropy and activism. Furthermore he is an eco-warrior, supporting several organizations and individuals fighting for the future of our planet. Music has also been introduced into this realm of his life, underpinning projects such as Music Rising and Young Artists for Haiti. Ezrin is of course, also involved in education, co-founding the Nimbus. Ezrin is the winner of three Juno Awards. In 2011, Ezrin was awarded the Special Achievement Award at the 2011 SOCAN Awards held in Toronto.
Admin
Dean Maher
Campus Director
Dean has been navigating the music scene since 1991. He originally received his first gig in the music industry by watching over Jimmy Page’s guitar collection while he was recording in what would eventually become one of Nimbus’s classrooms: the historic Little Mountain Sound Studio. Since then, Dean has recorded, produced and mixed hundreds of projects. Some of Dean’s more higher profile clients include Bryan Adams, Rise Against, Slayer, AC/DC, R.E.M, Mariana’s Trench, Patti Labelle & Xavier Rudd. Dean has been at Nimbus for a number of years, teaching various engineering & production classes. Today, Dean spends his time teaching, and advocating for students transitioning into the industry. He is also the Nimbus campus director and senior educational advisor.
Cat Thomson
Director of Admissions & Operations
Cat has been involved with music and the industry ever since she can remember. A classically trained pianist and singer, she attended Louisiana State University’s prestigious School of Music on an opera scholarship to pursue her Bachelor of Music. After having had the privilege of performing and teaching all over the world, she returned to Vancouver to study with Nimbus, graduating with top honours in the Advanced Music Production and Engineering program. Being an educator at heart, Cat has spent the last 10+ years working closely with many post-secondary institutions and non-profits in Vancouver to help support the next leaders of their industries. Most notably, she has spent the last 6 years as Director of Admissions and Operations within the holistic health and wellness college industry. She is a champion for equal rights and fairness, and understands whole-heartedly the path less chosen. Don’t be surprised if you hear a little aria coming from her office, or hear her gushing about her adorable son!
Filiana Tanoto
Administrative Assistant
Fili is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. She initially came to Canada to study film, writing, and business. Although quite busy tending to Nimbus’ day-to-day, she still manages to take the time to write. Fili also plays some musical instruments, mainly drums and violin, and loves listening to EDM and rock music. She’s super glad to be surrounded by like-minded people who love music just as much as she does.
Gord B
IT Manager
Gord (tundra) started experimenting with computers and tape recorders in the mid 80’s and went on to make noises that no one would ever hear. Fast forward to now and tundra makes computers go. Did you try turning it off and on again? Is it plugged in?
Faculty
Spencer Bleasdale
Instructor
Spencer Bleasdale is a freelance Producer, Engineer, Mixer, and Songwriter. His music career started as a teenager, playing guitar and singing in bands. At age 21, he graduated from Nimbus and landed a job at the legendary Armoury Studios. He spent the next 10 years at Armoury, working with the industry’s top Engineers and Producers on a wide variety of projects, spanning all genres of music. Early on at Armoury he was a part of the Bruno Mars recording session for Uptown Funk. Spencer has since Assisted and Engineered for artists such as OneRepublic, The Edge, and Diana Krall. He Engineered on the Juno Award-nominated album Open Road, by Colin James, and was the 2nd Engineer on the Grammy Award-winning album Look Now, by Elvis Costello and The Imposters. He has also been nominated for Songwriter of the year at the BCCMA’s. While actively Producing, Engineering, Mixing, and Writing, he also loves teaching, and is passionate about inspiring students to achieve great things in music.
Louise Burns
Instructor
Louise Burns is a two-time Polaris Prize-nominated musician, producer and songwriter based in Vancouver. She has over two decades of experience in the music industry as a performer, songwriter and producer, having toured internationally in countries including India, China, Australia and Japan. She began her career in the early 2000’s when she was signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records with her former band Lillix. She is currently teaching the Artist Development program, songwriting and music theory.
Daniel Cutler
Instructor
Daniel brings 20 years of music industry experience across major and independent record labels, artist management and music publishing. In addition to teaching the music business curriculum at Nimbus, Daniel remains actively involved in the industry as an artist manager and Web3 consultant. His career long advocacy on behalf of independent artists extends to the classroom where he ensures that each student leaves Nimbus with the knowledge and skill set to thrive in the modern music business landscape.
Paul Forgues
Instructor
Equally at home in the analog or digital domains of audio production; live venues or world class studios; if it has faders, Paul can put a mix together on it. Working with artists that span genres from punk to pop, Paul has worked in over 40 countries and can currently be found behind the Tour Manager’s desk for Steven Page.
Alex Grigg
Instructor
Alex is veteran music industry professional having held senior roles at various organizations including Senior Agent for the Feldman Agency, Associate Director, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Director of Festivals & Events – The MRG Group, Contemporary Music Programmer & National Presentations for the 2010 Winter Olympics , Executive Director – Music BC Industry Association, and Music Business Instructor for Metalworks Institute, Festival Management – Capilano University and Roles & Responsibilities at NIMBUS.
“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” – John Maxwell
Kat Luistro
Instructor
Katarina, AKA Kat with a K, is a certified life coach and instructor of the personal development program at Nimbus. She has years of experience in mentoring and guiding peers in reaching their desired goals all while bringing an element of excitement and fun to hard work and perseverance. With additional background in management and sales, Kat comes with real life experience that relate to many walks of life. Although not musically inclined herself (and trust me, she’s tried), she has a great love for music since a young age. From classical to musical theatre to R&B and hip hop, Kat is known to be a karaoke machine on legs. Kat has a strong passion to support others on their journey with the belief that “you are never alone”. Her wish for you is to live in your truth and surround yourself with people who believe in you.
Joe Ponting
Instructor
Uk born and raised Mixing engineer/ Producer/DJ ,Joe Ponting AKA Epitomic “brings only the best in Deep, grooving, electronic music to the Canadian scene. His refined production and mixing skills gives him a truly unlike sound. Joe maintains a solid tour schedule on the west coast. Starting to gain the attention of a global audience, he has played shows in the US, Costa Rica, Mexico, UK. With countless releases under his belt on labels such as Brooklyn Fire , MalLabel, Westwood X ,OFDM, Emengy Deep, Sheppard Records, Opulence Recordings and Electric Love Records where he held multiple Top 10 charting tracks.
Owner and operator of La selva studios Vancouver.
Owner and operator of Hidden Records (Label)
FOH mixing and system tech envision festival Bamboo Festival (Costa Rica).
Dj Producer @ Epitomic
Mixing and Mastering
Larisa Sanders
Instructor
Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, singer and event producer Larisa Sanders uses music as a medium to foster community. She has done so namely with her hip hop jam night called The Stew Jams which ran successfully for 2 years, fostering an unwavering community of diverse artists and creatives. Her passion is to act as a connector for folks producing all types of media (music, visual art, videography, fashion, publications etc) within the street art communities with an emphasis on underrepresented voices. In essence, encouraging collaboration to help generate our city’s culture.
With her deep love of harmony, you can see her sharing the stage with many local acts around town as well as fronting her own projects like the 5 piece all female hip hop group NADUH.
Dave Savard
Instructor
Dave Savard is a visual and sound artist. His practice blends the lines between graphic design and music production. He studied fine arts in college, communication arts in university and songwriting at Berklee.
As a graphic designer, his clients have included: Disney, Nike, TD, Aeroplan, Fido, Molson, Intrawest, Live Nation, several local companies and indie bands.
As a music producer, Dave releases his music under the name of Tecosha and Sound of Freedom. He publishes most of his work independently on West Fist Publishing.
As an artist, his sensibility guides his process. His storytelling skills, enriched by his art directing experience, gives his work a clear purpose. Each project expresses a precise set of emotions. His music stimulates the imagination. His design tells stories. His work as an artist, contributes to creating and sharing beauty.
Keiron Simons
Instructor
With a background as a counsellor and a lawyer, Keiron Simons has worked as a mediator, trainer, and coach for thirty years. His mediation/coaching practice focuses on (re)building teams and other relationships in the workplace, communities, and within families. As a facilitator, he provides training in areas ranging from conflict resolution and mediation to harassment prevention, creative collaboration, emotional intelligence, and creating effective teams. Clients range from post-secondary educational institutions to corporations, all levels of government, Indigenous communities, nongovernmental organizations, arts and community groups, families, and individuals. In addition, Keiron is the Conflict Resolution and Harassment Advisor for Capilano University.
Tim Steinruck
Instructor
Tim Steinruck is an independent artist and producer. He began his professional music career at an early age as a full time touring musician in North America and at age 24 landed a management deal with Paul Stanley of the legendary band KISS. He has successfully released three LPs under the artist name “The Mighty One,” as well as two solo records. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge, gifts and experience to the next generation of creatives as an educator, life coach, facilitator and public speaker. Most recently he accepted a position as President of the “Pearse Media Group” and is co-producer and director for the reality TV series “Rise Up TV.”
Cody Taylor
Instructor
Cody is a professional music producer, audio engineer and songwriter who has been teaching at Nimbus for over 10 years. He’s worked on a multitude of projects in a variety of genres with artists such as; Desirée Dawson, Elle Wolf, Zach Kleisinger and Skye Wallace. His music production company and studio, Fiend Recordings, has been operating in East Vancouver for over 8 years, and continues to nurture and support artists and their careers. Cody also produces his own music under the alias “nÜ nÜ” which is mainly “in-the-box” Ableton-based, electronic music.
Tech
The oil in our well-oiled machine. These guys are there to sign gear out, and know all the equipment inside and out – ready to offer support and advice with any tech issues. When they’re not working hard at Nimbus, they’re producing and mixing music in their own professional careers. They’re more than tech support, they’re your lifeline.
Curtis Kondra
Tech
Curtis graduated from Nimbus in 2019, and has recently found himself back in the family. He found his passion for music when he was young, looking up to his Dad who was a self proclaimed Vancouver rockstar back in the 90’s. Growing up with rock and metal, Curtis eventually grew his own passion for electronic music, listening to almost anything and everything, listing his favourite artists as Droeleo, Tails (Nimbus Alum!), and more.
Logan Burck
Tech
Logan Burck is a Nimbus alumni graduating in 2020. When he’s not on his bike, skis, or chasing some kind of rush he can be found engineering, mixing, and producing songs with various local artists. Growing up in the small town of Fort St James he was drawn to music from a young age. Whether it was from his Grandparents playing and singing CCR, Johnny Cash, and Niel Diamond on their 12 string and piano, or his dad having the RHCP’s, The Who, or The Clash on repeat, Logan grew up loving all genres of music. Some of his favourite Artists to listen to are The Beatles, Elton John, Mac Miller, Bakar, Marvin Gaye and Young Thug. You can hear the influence of these various artists in the songs Logan works on.
