Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

The most successful and durable multi-guitar ensembles performing in the U.S. today, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet has a large repertory extending beyond classical music. The quartet has made many recordings for GHA, Telarc, Delos, and other labels.
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, often referred to as LAGQ, was formed in 1980 by guitarist Anisa Angarola at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. The other members were John Dearman, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant, and all three of those remain active as of the early 2020s; Angarola departed in 1990 and was replaced by Andrew York, who, in turn, was supplanted by Matthew Greif in 2006. In its early years, the group received advice from guitarist Pepe Romero. The LAGQ concertized widely in the 1980s, and in 1993, it made its debut on the GHA label with the album Recital. Over the rest of the 1990s, the group made various recordings for GHA and Delos.
In the 2000s, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet gained a reputation for exceptionally varied programming. Within classical music, the quartet’s repertory ranged from the Renaissance to the contemporary era, and the group members were energetic in transcribing a variety of music for their own use, ranging from that of virtuoso Sergio Assad, to country guitarist Chet Atkins, to jazzman Pat Metheny. The group also performed original compositions by York, two of whose works were featured on the Grammy-winning 2004 release Guitar Heroes. That album appeared on the audiophile label Telarc, and the group’s recordings appeared on that label into the early 2010s. The quartet also made two recordings for Sony Classical. The LAGQ has continued to record, appearing on Metheny’s 2021 album Road to the Sun. It formed its own LAGQ label and, in 2022, released its first album there, Opalescent. ~ James Manheim