By: Soondos Mulla-Ossman ~Staff Writer~

Xavier hosted the second of several classical piano performances in its highly anticipated Music Series.

Last Sunday, Artem Yasynskyy returned to Cincinnati, where he won the Cincinnati World Piano Competition, to perform in the Gallagher Theatre. He performed 23 pieces from five different composers, Benjamin Britten being his personal favorite. The moods of these compositions ranged from light and delightful to heavy and somber. The musician transitioned from one piece to the next, which often contrasted in style and demanded careful execution.

Yasynskyy was born in 1988 in Donetsk, Ukraine, into a family of professional musicians. At age 7 he became a pupil of Albina Oryshuk at the Special School for Gifted Children and afterward continued his musical studies at the Donetxk State Musical Academy. Since 2010, he has studied with Patrick O’Byrne at the University of Arts in Bremen, located in Bremen, Germany.

In addition to winning first place in the Cincinnati World Piano Competition, which set him on his world tour, he has also been a prizewinner at other major international piano competitions like the Gina Bachauer Piano Artist Competition, the Sendai Music Competition, the Gian Battista Viotti Music Competition, the Horowitz Music Competition and the First German Competition of Polish Music.

He has appeared at international festivals such as the Bremer Musikfest, the Maggio Piano Festival Vercelli, Italy, the Summer Night Music Festival of Kiev, the Festival “Days of Slavic Culture” in Rome and the Polish Music Festival in Hamburg. Numerous concert engagements have taken him to Norway, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, the United States of America, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine.

A highly diverse audience came to listen to him last Sunday, ranging from elementary school children to university students to the elderly. Yasynskyy was rewarded with two standing ovations that afternoon, so moving that the pianist came back onstage for an encore.

As he moves to North Carolina for his next concert, t the next musician in the Music Series lineup includes Martha Masters, one of the most sought-after guitarists of her generation.