Thomas Russell serves as Adjunct Instructor of Organ at the University of South Carolina School of Music and as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. He holds a Master of Music in Organ Performance from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of South Carolina School of Music. His major teachers include Thomas Murray, Dr. William H. Bates and Dr. Ed Dunbar for repertoire; and Jeffrey Brillhart for improvisation. Additionally, he has coached with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, David Higgs, Rachel Laurin and Simon Preston. 

Thomas has taught organ and piano at the Covenant Conservatory in Nashville, TN, where he served as director from 2012-2015. He currently teaches organ in the Organ Scholars Program at First Presbyterian Church as well as in the School of Music at UofSC. His previous church positions have included those as Organist and Music Associate at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN; Organist at Zion Lutheran Church in Wallingford, CT; and Organist at Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC. His career as a recitalist and solo performer have taken him throughout the United States and Europe.