Have Guitar, Will Travel : Anisa Angarola Leads Her Quartet Around the World; Tonight the Group Makes U.S. Debut at Cal State Fullerton

Relative newcomers to the concert scene, guitar ensembles are booming, worldwide and locally. Both situations are due in no small part to the pioneering Romero family of guitarists.

So when Anisa Angarola founded the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in 1979, it was with the advice of Pepe Romero. Then when she left that group to form another ensemble, she turned again to Romero for personnel suggestions and counsel.

That led her to Europe. Though Angarola continues to call Carlsbad home, and to travel up to Torrance to teach at El Camino College as she has since 1979, the Angarola Guitar Quartet is hardly a local product.

“The summer before last, I went to Europe and auditioned people,” Angarola says. “I wanted us to be an international group, as all-world as possible for four people to be.

“What I really love about the European players is that they have a more comprehensive background. They know a lot of music and are not hemmed in by little guitar boundaries. I was also looking for compatible techniques, based on what I learned from Pepe Romero.”

Last summer her new group made its debut tour in Germany, although they had been doing things together informally before that. Tonight the Angarola Guitar Quartet makes its U.S. debut at Cal State Fullerton, for the first of seven concerts in California.

The program includes “Urban Toys” by Fullerton faculty composer Lloyd Rodgers, which had its first performances last August in the ensemble’s debut concerts. Angarola hopes to have at least one premiere each season, and is drawn to minimalism for its freshness combined with accessibility.

“We’re going to blend old and new,” Angarola says. “But I’m trying to take older pieces--passacaglias and others--which have textures and patterns like minimalism. I would like to have a repertory of my own.

“I have a two-tiered approach to repertory. First, you have to be sure the needs of your audience are going to be satisfied. I also have to look at the needs of the four of us. Are we going to be happy playing this music many times?”

Angarola began playing the guitar by serendipitous accident. “I was 11, and I found a guitar someone had left in our house in Carlsbad. I already played piano and began teaching myself.”

From there she went on to USC, studying first with Christopher Parkening and Jim Marcus, then Pepe Romero. Eventually, she studied with Angel and Celin Romero as well.

It was with other Romero students at USC that she formed the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and the need for a consistent approach to the instrument drove her to other Romero proteges for her new ensemble.

She may have had technical compatibility in the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, but after 12 years of concertizing with that group, here and abroad, Angarola found herself feeling increasingly at artistic odds.

“We had a parting of the ways--a different philosophy, basically,” she sighs. “I find that I need to be the leader in my own group, to be true to what I want to be.”

Isn’t there a risk, then, of creating the same frustrations among her new colleagues?

“That was one of the things that I was careful about,” she says. “Even though I’m the leader, I picked people with the same philosophy. We have absolutely no problems with interpretation, and no matter how crazy the idea--or whose it is--everything gets tried out.”

Angarola’s interest in Europe includes a passion for Ireland, as can be heard on her new compact disc from Dargason, “Irish Airs & Dances.”

“It’s just a mania,” Angarola laughs. “I love Ireland. I must have been there two or three thousand times.

“It was a lark. I did all the arranging, exploring new avenues with repertory.”

On the horizon are solo pieces by Rodgers and UCLA faculty composer Ian Krouse. Angarola has received a grant from the California Arts Council for touring solo recitals in the 1994 season.

Despite all this local activity, Angarola sees more possibilities overseas, at least with her quartet in the near future. She even sees a potentially disastrous downside to the guitar’s popularity.

“I’m looking more toward Europe now, because I have my manager over there,” she says. “I think there will be more work for us over there.

“It’s hard here to compete with videos and movies. In Europe they’ve been going to concerts for hundreds of years, there’s a tradition there.

“The guitar is at a crucial point now,” she says. “There are a lot of mediocre concerts--and only a few good ones--and they are killing the guitar.”