Josef Hofmann was one of the greatest Romantic virtuosi of his age, a towering technician and a poet of the keyboard. He also wrote extensively for the piano, crafting a richly contrasted set of Charakterskizzen, Op.40, a Sonata in F major, Op.21 that reveals the influence of Schumann, and a finely wrought Theme with Variations and Fugue, Op.14.

Artem Yasynskyy was born in 1988 in Donetsk, Ukraine into a family of professional musicians. He gave his first public concert at the age of eight and, over the next ten years, enjoyed success as a prize winner in several competitions for young pianists, including the Horowitz International Piano Competition for Young Pianists, held in Kiev. At the inaugural German Piano Competition of Polish Music held in Hamburg in 2013, he was awarded the Hofmann Prize (a contract to record works by Josef Hofmann) as well as a concert tour of Poland, during which he performed as soloist with the Koszalin Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2014 he received the Bronze Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.