The City of Angels Saxophone Quartet (COASQ) has championed the emergence of saxophone quartet on the concert stage for more than 25 years.  Shortly after its founding in the early 1990s, the ensemble, based in Los Angeles, CA was the first saxophone quartet to win top honors at the prestigious Coleman and Carmel Chamber Music Competitions.  Recent honors have included concerts sponsored by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, appearances at the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, CA and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  Most recently the group was honored by an invitation to appear at the prestigious Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival in Florida sharing the bill with Itzhak Perlman, Anne Akiko Meyers, Bella Fleck and the Dover String Quartet.   

With a wide and varied repertoire developed and seasoned over time, the ensemble constantly seeks new ways to connect with audiences through succinct commentary focusing on the human stories behind the music that they perform.  The ensemble received repeat endorsements from the Southern California Consortium of Chamber Music Presenters and has been in-demand on the Southern California Chamber music scene, with innovative programs to attract and retain audiences.  The effectiveness of this approach to make classical music more accessible to audiences is evident in repeat appearances at many venues.  Individual members of COASQ often craft custom arrangements for the group to meet needs of particular programming opportunities.  While trained and steeped in the classical tradition, the unique and often overlooked heritage of the saxophone has bequeathed the group with a keen interest in the endless possibilities for varied programs that can mix and match from transcriptions of classical works to historical presentations from the saxophone craze to the swing era as well as the emerging contemporary repertoire.

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