The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) is an American classical guitar ensemble that was formed in 1980. It consists of

John Dearman John Dearman is a Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist and one of the founding members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ). Known to LAGQ fans as the group's seven-string virtuoso who supplies the deep-bass lines for numerous pieces in ...

, William Kanengiser,

Scott Tennant Scott Tennant is an American classical guitarist. He is a member of the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) is an American classical guitar ensemble that was formed in 1980. It consists of Jo ...

and Matthew Greif (who replaced original member Andrew York at the end of 2006). They play nylon string guitars to imitate a variety of instruments and effects. They have played in many styles:

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

, bluegrass,

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura a ...

, rock, and

new-age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

. The quartet received a

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many ...

in 2005 for '' Guitar Heroes''.

Background

Anisa Angarola assembled the quartet in 1980 at the University of Southern California with help from guitarist Pepe Romero. In 1990 Andrew York replaced Angarola. In 2006 York was replaced by Matthew Greif. The group's first album included works by Holst, Rossini, and Stravinsky. Although primarily a classical ensemble, the group dabbles in other genres. The album ''Guitar Heroes'' included music by Chet Atkins, Sergio Assad, Steve Howe, and

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progr ...

. The group has played classical music from the Baroque, Classical, Renaissance, Romantic, and modern periods.

has recorded albums of the guitar works of Joaquín Rodrigo and the Celtic music of England, Ireland and Scotland. He has taught at the University of Southern California and has written method books for classical guitar.

plays a custom guitar with an added bass string and extended fretboard. He has taught at

El Camino College El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a two-year public community college located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County known as Alondra Park.University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. William Kanengiser has arranged works for the quartet, including the

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. In both the original piano solo form and in the orchestrated version this ...

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

and the gamelan piece "Gongan". He has taught at the University of Southern California and is a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music.Ljiljana Grubisic
Thornton Faculty, Alums Win Grammys
, USC Public Relations, March 12, 2007, Accessed March 4, 2009.

Awards and honors

* ''Latin'', Grammy Award nomination, 2003 * ''Guitar Heroes'', Grammy Award, Best Classical Crossover, 2005

Discography

* ''L.A. Guitar Quartet Recital'' (GHA, 1991) * ''Dances from Renaissance to Nutcracker'' (

Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island ar ...

, 1992) * ''Evening in Granada'' (Delos, 1993) * ''Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo'' (GHA, 1994) * ''Labyrinth'' (Delos, 1995) * ''For Thy Pleasure'' (Delos, 1996) * ''L.A.G.Q.'' (

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, 1998) * ''Air and Ground'' (Sony, 2000) * ''LAGQ Latin'' ( Telarc, 2002) * ''Guitar Heroes'' (Telarc, 2004) * ''Spin'' (Telarc, 2006) * ''Brazil'' (Telarc, 2007) * ''Interchange: Concertos by Rodrigo and Assad'' (Telarc, 2010) * ''Boccherini: Guitar Quintets'' (Red Bus, 2011) * ''New Renaissance'' (Burnside/Lagq, 2015) * ''Opalescent'' (2022)

Articles

Interview (1987)
by Paul Magnussen

References

External links

Official site

Scott Tennant's website

William Kanengiser's website

Matthew Greif's website

Andrew York's website
{{authority control Musical groups established in 1980 Classical guitar ensembles Grammy Award winners