11-year-old Klaara Leponiemi started to play cello at the age of six. She has studied under the guidance of Hannele Savolainen and Varpu Haavisto. Klaara loves to play chamber music together with her brother Kasperi, and in other ensembles as well. Klaara Leponiemi is a member of the piano trio Akva that was founded last autumn.

Kasperi Leponiemi started to play guitar at the age of eight. He has studied with Tomi Tolvanen and Marko Jouste. 12-year-old Kasperi has played together with his sister Klaara for several years and they have performed together in various concerts.

Otto Tolonen, born in 1980, has studied music since he was five. After the first few years learning the piano his instrument has been the guitar, which he first studied with Andrzej Wilkus at the Espoo Music Institute. He continued his music studies at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki) as a student of Timo Korhonen and Jukka Savijoki. He got his soloist diploma from the Sibelius Academy with the maximum points in 2005 and received his master’s degree in 2008. In 2001-2002 Otto studied in Weimar, Germany, at Hochschule für Musik ”Franz Liszt” with Thomas Müller-Pering and four summers with legendary Oscar Ghiglia at "Accademia Musicale Chigiana" in Siena, Italy, where he was awarded a diploma of honour (Diploma di Merito) in three consecutive years.

Otto Tolonen is one of the most successful Finnish classical guitarists. He has seen competitions as a possibility to make progress in his career. Since 1995 he has won prizes and awards in 19 international competitions, e.g. Fernando Sor –competition in Rome, Jyväskylä guitar competition, San Francisco (GFA), Los Angeles Stotsenberg competition, Johann Kaspar Mertz competition in Bratislava, Templin competition in Berlin, international guitar competitions in New Castle, Australia and Tychy, Poland. In 2008 he received first prize in Andres Segovia competition in Herradura, Spain and third prize in Tokyo International competition.

Otto has given recitals both in Finland and in many countries around the world. He has performed in the Northern America in Nashville Virtuoso Showcase concert series, in Cincinnati and on a Sibelius Academy tour to Michigan, Milwaukee and Illinois. In the Southern America he has had concerts in Manuel de Falla museum in Alta Gracia, Argentina and at Belo Horizonte guitar festival in Brazil. He has performed extensively in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries (e.g. Saint Christopher festival, Vilnius) and especially in Central Europe (Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, the Hague, Münster, Bamberg, Weimar, Bratislava, Vienna, Rust, Rome, Pescara, Esztergom among others).

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