Los Angeles Guitar Quartet to come to Wharton Center

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Grammy Award-winning guitar group, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, will perform at 3 p.m. March 21 at Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall. The group plays classical as well as contemporary music. The State News sat down with the newest member of the group, Matthew Greif.

The State News Tell us about your group.

Matthew Greif There are four of us — the three guys other than myself are original members. It was formed (in 1980) and they were all students at (University of Southern California).

They were known as the USC Guitar Quartet at the time. I am the newest member and I’ve been with this group for three years. I, in a way, have the same connection — I was a student at USC. I didn’t become a member of the group while I was a student, but I knew all the guys and kept in contact over the years, and it seemed to be the right fit.

TSN What do you like about playing with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet?

MG One of my favorite things about playing with the group is the program is always very varied. (It has) a little something for everybody, so we’re playing everything from Renaissance Spanish music, we’re playing Brazilian jazz, we’re playing three pieces kind of contemporary and we’re playing one kind of very classic piece, the Carmen Suite.

TSN How did you become a member of the group?

MG (Andrew York, one of the original group members) was with the group (for) 15 years and he’s a composer as well and great solo player as well, so I think he just wanted to try some different musical projects. It was very amicable. So they invited me and maybe eight, nine other people to audition.

They gave us a pile of music to learn and there were a couple different stages of it, and the whole thing lasted maybe three months. It was a pretty nerve-wracking summer for those of us trying, but it was great fun.

TSN How did you become interested in music?

MG My family are all musicians. My grandparents met at Julliard in New York and my mother and all her siblings play instruments — my mom is a professional violinist. My family is kind of a big variety show. You just kind of got dragged into it whether you liked it or not. So I grew up playing various instruments, various styles. When I was 12, 13 I got really into the guitar. I was kind of rocker for a while, and that got me really enthusiastic about it, so I thought I would reach out and play classical guitar because there was a lot of structure there. I fell in love with classical.

TSN Where does the music you perform come from?

MG A lot of it is arranged from other instrumentations. All the Renaissance (music ) is free-existing music arranged for this group. There are some other pieces originally conceived for guitars. Within the group, Scott (Tennant) and Bill (Kanengiser) have written some pieces. Andy York wrote a ton of music. The bulk of it is just arranging.

TSN Do you travel a lot with the group?

MG (The) last couple of years we’ve been really all over the place — China, Russia, Europe several times, Poland, Germany — so we’ve traveled quite a bit.

TSN Do you enjoy traveling all over the globe to play?

MG I just love to travel in general and play music. The other guys have done it for 30 years. They love to play music.

The line they give is they say, ‘We play for nothing — we’re paid to travel.’ We all love to play music so much and meet all the different people. But maybe the actual sitting on a plane, getting in really late and then having to get up the very next morning to go someplace, maybe that gets a little tiring. But not too bad. I love it.

Student tickets to the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet’s performance are $15, and general admission tickets are $35. For tickets or more information, visit www.whartoncenter.com or call (517) 432-2000.

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