Grammy-Winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Performs New Work by Pat Metheny

Aliso Viejo, CA – The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet performs at Soka Performing Arts Center on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $50 for adults; $40 for students, seniors, and active military families; and $37 each for groups of 10 or more. Purchase tickets online or by calling 949-480-4ART (4278).

The Grammy Award-winning LAGQ is comprised of four uniquely accomplished musicians bringing new energy to the concert stage. The quartet members are John Dearman, Matthew Greif, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant. The program for this concert will be Phillip Houghton’s Opals; Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6; three Brazilian pieces by Hermeto Pacoal, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Baden Powell; four dances from Thomas Morley’s First Booke of Consort Lessons; and Road to the Sun, a new work by Pat Metheny co-commissioned by Soka University of America.

LAGQ’s inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Winner of a 2005 Grammy Award, their Guitar Heroes album has received praise for its unique ability to capture the feeling and fervor of diverse musical styles such as jazz, bluegrass, rock, and flamenco. In addition to touring the United States, Europe, and Asia, LAGQ served as artistic directors for the 2015 Laguna Beach Music Festival.

Dearman is a versatile guitarist who enriches the sound of the LAGQ by performing on a unique seven-string guitar with extended upper and lower registers; he is currently director of the Guitar Chamber Music program at California State University, Northridge. The newest member of the quartet, Greif was named Outstanding Graduate of the USC guitar department, where he studied with William Kanengiser, James Smith, and Scott Tennant. He currently teaches classical and jazz guitar at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Acclaimed soloist, recording artist, and professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, Kanengiser is one of the few guitarists to have won the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition. He has earned critical acclaim for his imaginative arrangements for solo guitar and guitar quartet. Celebrated as a world-class performer, author, and teacher, Tennant has recorded for Delos International and is currently completing a recording project of the complete solo guitar works of Joaquin Rodrigo for GHA, Belgium. He is currently on the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music.