Currently ranked among the most enduring and prominent guitar quartets active across the United States, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet maintains an expansive catalogue that stretches well past the boundaries of classical repertoire. The ensemble has issued numerous recordings on GHA, Telarc, Delos, and additional imprints.
Formed in 1980 at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California by guitarist Anisa Angarola, the group originally consisted of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant. Those three players have remained with the quartet into the early 2020s, while Angarola left in 1990 and was succeeded by Andrew York; Matthew Greif replaced York in 2006. During its formative period, the quartet benefited from counsel provided by guitarist Pepe Romero. Extensive touring marked the 1980s, after which the ensemble made its first appearance on the GHA label in 1993 with the album Recital. Additional sessions for GHA and Delos occupied the balance of that decade.
By the 2000s the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet had established a reputation for unusually eclectic programming. Its classical selections extended from Renaissance works to recent compositions, and the members actively arranged music by a wide range of artists, among them virtuoso Sergio Assad, country guitarist Chet Atkins, and jazzman Pat Metheny. Original pieces by York were also presented, two of which appeared on the 2004 Grammy-winning release Guitar Heroes. Issued on the audiophile label Telarc, that album inaugurated a series of recordings the quartet would make for the company through the early 2010s. Two further projects were recorded for Sony Classical. The group has sustained its recording activity, contributing to Metheny’s 2021 album Road to the Sun. It subsequently established its own LAGQ imprint, on which the first release, Opalescent, appeared in 2022.
