Artifex Consort | Chamber Concert

Eva Lymenstull Monday, May 4, 2026 7:30 PM get tickets Specializing in the rich and varied “sound-world” of the late 17th century, the Artifex Consort (Malachai Komanoff Bandy, Rebecca Landell, and Eva Lymenstull, bass viols; John Lenti, theorbo; Ian Pritchard, keyboards) closes our season with works showcasing the viola da gamba as an ensemble instrument outside of the English consort tradition, during the height of its later flourishing in parts of England and Germany. The program features virtuosic music for two bass viols by Christopher Simpson and Johannes Schenck, alongside lush and ingenious—though little-known—works for three bass viols by Benjamin Hely and Johann Michael Nicolai.   An ensemble dedicated to mediating theory and practice in spirited performance, Artifex Consort shares its name with the 17th century alchemical adept hard at work in both the library and the laboratory, the perennial student whose rigorous craft centers on cultivating and sharing knowledge through Nature’s artful imitation. This mission lends itself particularly well to reanimating lesser-known works of the 17th century Hamburg school of contrapuntists (Johann Theile, Johann Adam Reincken, Dieterich Buxtehude, and their circle), but the ensemble finds an equal home in the rich viol repertories of the French baroque and English consort traditions.   Artifex's base in Claremont, California invites blended inspiration from the cultural riches of metro Los Angeles and the rugged foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. Program: TBD Malachai Komanoff Bandy is Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College. He holds a PhD in historical musicology from the USC Thornton School of Music, supported by Provost and Oakley Endowed Fellowships. In 2019, Bandy received both the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music’s Irene Alm Memorial Prize and the AMS Pacific Southwest Chapter’s Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology. As a historical string and wind player, Bandy has performed with ensembles including Ars Lyrica Houston, Bach Collegium San Diego, Voices of Music, Tesserae, and Ciaramella, and as a viol soloist with the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In TV/film recording, Bandy’s solos are featured in Outlander, The Rings of Power, Percy Jackson, Foundation, and more. Bandy’s written scholarship concerns Christian mysticism in German Baroque repertoires, as well as viol technique and iconography. Recent articles can be read in the journal Early Music and the volume Explorations in Music and Esotericism (University of Rochester Press). He is a founder and artistic director of the viol ensemble Artifex Consort.   Violist da gamba and cellist Rebecca Landell’s “luminous” (Cleveland.com) and “notable” (New York Times) sound elicits a range of expression “from classically evocative to Hitchcock horrifying” (Washingtonian). As an undergraduate, Landell studied cello with Darrett Adkins and Baroque cello and viola da gamba with Catharina Meints at Obe...