Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is one of the most important post-war composers, known for his highly complex music and extreme demands on the performers. In his two collections of Gershwin Arrangements Finnissy arranged many of the well-known songs for piano solo. As Finnissy states, the inversion of mood in so many of these movements is central to his approach: Tempo and harmony change from fast to slow, light to dark, and vice versa.

Belgian pianist Lukas Huisman is one of the most remarkable and original pianists of his generation. From 2012 to 2016 he worked on an artistic doctoral project relating to contemporary complex solo piano music (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Xenakis, Sorabji) at the School of Arts Ghent/University Ghent.