Phillip Rista (Phil) Nimmons {clarinet, composer, conductor, and educator}, was born in Kamloops, British Columbia on June 3, 1923. From 1966 he led a band for the CBC jazz radio shows, toured Armed Forces bases in Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, sponsored by the CBC and the Canadian Government. Arranged and orchestrated Oscar Peterson's "Canadiana Suite" for his own group, Nimmons 'N' plus 6, with Peterson as featured soloist at Beaverbrook Playhouse, Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1970. Wrote and premiered "Suite P.E.I." for the Prince Edward centennial in 1973. Wrote "Palette A Deux" for World Saxophone Congress also in 1973. In 1974 he premiered "Atlantic Suite" on concert tour of Atlantic Provinces and orchestrated and arranged a selection of Duke Ellington songs for Oscar Peterson's performance with the Vancouver Symphony. In April of 1975 he orchestrated and arranged Peterson's thematic material for the Ontario Place film "Big North". He has been an annual participant at the University of New Brunswick's Jazz and Chamber Music Festival, a director of summer jazz courses at Niagara College, and in 1975 was appointed director of the jazz programme at the University of Toronto. He received citations from the Canadian Government in 1967, 1969, 1971 and 1972.
BMI honoured him in 1968 with an award for best original jazz composition, and in 2001 he was inducted into the International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, the first Canadian member to receive this award.