The Seattle International Piano Festival (SIPF) is proud to present for the fifteenth iteration, the annual Bach Festival (online edition) for pianists and instrumentalists of any nationality, featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as other Baroque masters. This competitive event was created to provide performing opportunities for those who wish to share their love of Bach’s revered music and to provide performers with constructive feedback from performing and teaching masters. Participants will receive educational evaluations by performing for adjudicators, and a chance to receive medals and certificates.

We are honored to continue the tradition of the annual Bach Festival by its original founder, Jennifer Bowman, and hope to preserve her artistic vision. The festival has always been a wonderful educational and artistic opportunity for pianists and violinists both locally and abroad, and our mission is to see that it becomes an anticipated event each year.

This festival sets forth narrowly defined age groups and specific genre groups so that participants may be fairly judged, and generously decorated.

There are no significant changes to the 2024 festival from the previous edition.

Changes to Rules (revised July 24, 2024):

• New Category: Participants may opt to be evaluated based on the principles of historically informed performance (use of appropriate baroque articulation, detailed knowledge and projection of dance rhythms, affekt, ornamentation, etc). Any one work and/or combination of movements within one work or cycle by J.S. Bach may be submitted up to 10 minutes in total length. Only adjudicators with extensive knowledge and studies of baroque performance practice issues will judge this category. Students and teachers are encouraged to study these aspects through literature, presentations, lectures, and numerous available sources. This is an educational category with a chance for specific feedback and the above topics applied to the participant’s work. Some students will be selected to receive an “Award of Recognition for the Most Historically Informed Performance”.

• Awards: Distinguished gold medal awards are no longer offered for the 2024 Bach Festival