Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Larry Cansler" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Larry Lee Cansler (born 9 May 1940 inDallas, Texas) is an American composer, arranger, conductor,musical director, and pianist. Over a lengthy career he has collaborated withKenny Rogers,Lionel Richie,Roger Miller,The Smothers Brothers,Michael Martin Murphey,Mason Williams,The Jackson Five,Pam Tillis,Collin Raye, and many others. Cansler has contributed scores to several films,dramatic television series, musicalvariety shows, and over 800 national television andradio commercials. He has conducted various major symphonyorchestras and produced three albums of his owninstrumental music.

Cansler started his musical career by majoring inmusic composition atNorth Texas State University. After attending college and serving in the army, he moved toLos Angeles. There he connected with fellow Texan Kenny Rogers, who had just formed the rock groupThe First Edition. Rogers asked Cansler to come on board as keyboardist, musical director, and arranger. During this time Cansler joined the writing staff atScreen Gems and began writing songs with Michael Martin Murphey. Cansler and Murphey composed an 18-songconcept album,The Ballad of Calico, for The First Edition, and together penned the pop hit"Wildfire",^[1] which sold over five million copies.

During the 1970s Cansler arranged and conducted for many populargroups, including The Jackson Five andThe Temptations. He began composingfilm scores and during the course of several years composed the scores for many movies and television shows including theGambler series (starring Kenny Rogers),The Smothers Brothers Twentieth Reunion, andThe Kenny Rogers andDolly Parton Christmas Special. He scoredSongwriter, starringWillie Nelson andKris Kristofferson, composed the music forRobert Redford'sshort subjectA Short Film On Solar Energy, and received an Emmy nomination for his main theme for theCBS Sports Spectacular.

In 1986 Cansler composed his first symphonic work after receiving a grant from the Foundation for New American Music. His symphony, entitled "Mojave", was inspired by his lifelong love of flying. The piece included a text written byJohn Stewart (formerly withthe Kingston Trio) and was narrated byMercury astronautScott Carpenter. "Mojave" was premiered at theDorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and has been performed atthe Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

During this period^[when?] Cansler, a longtime private pilot, joined theRutan Voyager support team as a pressspokesman. This role led to his announcing and producing airshows around the United States. He andDick Rutan jointly produced an airshow atLangkawi Island, Malaysia, featuring American airshow pilots and skydivers and aMiG 29 demonstration team from theRussian Air Force.

Cansler resides in Arizona and California with his wife, aregistered nurse. He has two daughters from a previous marriage.

• Pacific Dreams (1988)^[2]
• Indian Paintbrush: Sketches of the Southwest (1990)

• Larry Cansler

• American male composers
• 21st-century American composers
• Living people
• University of North Texas College of Music alumni
• 1940 births
• 21st-century American male musicians

• BLP articles lacking sources from July 2009
• All BLP articles lacking sources
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with vague or ambiguous time
• Vague or ambiguous time from January 2011