Who We Are
The Canadian School of Lutherie is a collaboration between three Luthiers with common passions for building guitars and meeting new and interesting people. Before starting CSL, the three instructors had been working together in the beautiful LaHave River Valley. From this relationship blossomed the idea to start a full service guitar shop dedicated to building custom instruments, teaching people interested in our craft, and offering repairs that no one else could handle. Thus, the Canadian School of Lutherie was born! We have been in operation since November 2009, and haven't looked back since. We love what we do and hope to share it with all who will listen.
The Instructors
George Rizsanyi
George Rizsanyi was born in Hungary. His family escaped the Hungarian
Revolution to Canada when he was one year old. George became interested
in guitars early in life when he was given a guitar at the age of four.
Since then, his passion for sound has sustained a long and noteworthy
career. He has built guitars for musicians and collectors around the
world including Keith Richards, Peter Gabriel, Sting and Willie P.
Bennett. He also built the Six String Nation guitar from 64 pieces of
Canadian history, one of which is the only piece of wood ever harvested
from the Golden Spruce - a tree sacred to the Haida people. His most
recent work is with the Canadian School of Lutherie, where his knowledge
and experience is being used to engage a new generation of students in
the craft.
Mitch MacDonald
Mitch hails from the small town of Montague, Prince Edward Island. In
2007 Mitch moved to Nova Scotia to attend the Heritage Carpentry
Program at NSCC in Lunenburg. There, he learned the skills of the
woodworking trade and soon after graduating, began his apprenticeship
with Luthier George Riszanyi. After his apprenticeship he has had the
opportunity to continue working with George to open the Canadian School
of Lutherie. Mitch is one of three instructor's who teach the art of
Instrument building and repair to student's around the globe.
Jeremy Nicks
Jeremy was born and raised in the farming community of Waterford, Ontario. He fell in love with the craft of lutherie when he built his first guitar under the direction of George Rizsanyi in the summer of 2001. Since that time, he earned a B.Sc. in Mathematics from McMaster University, and a B.Ed. from Memorial University. Although enthusiastic about working with students, Jeremy found little fuel in his four years in the public school system and decided to quit teaching to pursue his first love. Jeremy returned to the Rizsanyi shop in 2009 and was met with a unique opportunity to start on a new venture with two great friends and combine his passions of teaching and building string instruments.
