Lenny Carlson is a Los Angeles-born composer, arranger, guitarist, producer and teacher. His compositions draw on elements of jazz, classical, popular and folk traditions. Lenny has recorded under his own name, receiving numerous awards for his original work, including a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition. He has composed for live performance, film, video and theater. Over three decades his professional associations have included such diverse names as Ry Cooder, Joe Diorio, John Carter, Don Preston, Kenny Kotwitz, Harold Mason and Betty O'Hara. In 2005, he composed and performed the music for Stanford Summer Theater's production of Harold Pinter's The Lover and The Aurora Forum's Song of Myself by Walt Whitman. Mr. Carlson has taught in the Music Department at City College of San Francisco since 1997 and has been teaching jazz history courses in the Stanford Continuing Studies Program since 2006.