Born in Parma, Italy, CLAUDIO PIASTRA has given hundreds of concerts at festivals and international concert seasons around the world. He has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras and conductors, and has been featured artist in numerous television and radio broadcasts. The American Records' Guide awarded him the prestigious "Globe" award for his Schubert album and wrote: "Unquestionably one of the most interesting recordings of Schubert, a must-have CD." Claudio made the first complete double-tracked recording of the 24 Preludes and Fugues for 2 guitars by Castelnuovo Tedesco. It is now in its third pressing by Warner Fonit. Since that time he has released a score of CDs to critical acclaim for: Fonit Cetra, Europa Musica, Koch International, Mondo Musica, Warner Fonit. He is equally active in the area of publishing where he has revised and edited 45 volumes of arrangements and original works for guitar (Carish, Mnemes, Suvini Zerboni, Berbén). A professor at the Achille Peri Music Institute in Reggio Emilia, Italy, he has been invited to hold master classes in Italy, Canada, France, Austria, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and other countries. In 2011 he was appointed its Artistic Director after he gave the annual guitar master class at the prestigious Tadini Academy of Fine Arts of Lovere, Bergamo in 2010.

Born in Riga, ILYA GRUBERT began his studies at the E. Darzin School of Music in Riga. Considered a student of exceptional talent, at the age of fourteen he continued his studies with the famous Russian teachers Y. Yankelevich and Z. Gilels, and then under L. Kogan at the Moscow Conservatory. He earned his first international success at the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 1975. Subsequently, he won first prize in both the Paganini Competition in Genova and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1978. Since this time he has had a distinguished career and performed with famous orchestras together with conductors such as M. Jansons, G. Rozhdesvensky, V. Nelson, M. Wigglesworth and M. Shostakovich. He toured in the United States, Canada, Australia and throughout Europe. He lives in Holland and is a professor at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He plays a 1740 violin by Pietro Guarneri, ex Wieniawski.