Orcas student, Thurmond Russell earns silver medal in Bach Festival International

||| FROM MICHELE RUSSELL |||

Thurmond Russell, age 17, competed in the 2025 Bach Festival International in October, earning a silver medal for his age group in the Historically Informed Peformance Category. He chose to play Johann Sebastion Bach’s Toccata in E minor (BWV 914), a piece written fairly early in the composer’s development. This piece is structured in four parts: (1) a Prelude, (2) a double fugue, (3) an Adagio, and then concluding with (4) a second fugue.

The Historically Informed Performance category is a special section of the competition in which the participants are evaluated based on the principles of historically informed performance (such as appropriate ornamentation,
Baroque articulation, and affekt). The adjudicator for this category was chosen based on his extensive knowledge of Baroque performance practice.

In his comments to Thurmond, he said, “Beautiful playing! I really enjoyed listening to your performance of this toccata and found your playing very musical and sensitive. Your have a good feeling for the tempo flexibility and
rhetorical style of this music, and I can tell that you have studied historical performance practice in depth.”

Thurmond will be participating in a month-long piano mentorship with an internationally acclaimed pianist in March 2026, and plans to offer a recital in the Spring as part of his Senior project.