Seeli Toivio has performed in Europe, Asia, South Africa and USA as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She has made TV and radio broadcasts in Europe (YLE, BBC, KLARA etc.), and has recorded CDs for Finnish and Bulgarian recording companies. She has made concert tours in Finland, Bulgary, England and Japan.

She started her cello studies at the age of 4 at the Lahti Conservatory of Music (Lahti, Finland) with Jouko Paavola. 1988–1991 she studied at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland) with Hannu Kiiski, and 1992–1993 with Erkki Rautio and Marcel Bergman.

1990 –1993 she studied at the Liszt Academy (Budapest, Hungary) with Miklós Perényi, and 1995–1998 at the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) with David Strange. 1998 –2003 she studied at the Sibelius Academy with Martti Rousi.

She has diplomas of cello from the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) in 1998 with highest honours Dip. R.A.M., Postgraduate Performance and from the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland) with the Master of Music -degree in 2003.

She is currently studying Doctor of Music -degree at the Sibelius Academy’s department of Doctorate Studies in Performance and Research. Her thesis is ”The Development of the Left Hand Cello Technique from 18th century”. In the work she also introduces her own left hand cello technique, which she especially uses for virtuoso works.

Among her repertoire from 17th to 21st century, she also arranges violin virtuoso works for cello.

Repertoire includes Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy and Gipsy Melodies, Wieniawsky's Scherzo-Tarantella, Paganini's Moses Fantasy and Bazzini's Dance of the Goblins.

She often performs violin virtuoso works in her recitals as well as in her soloist appearances. She plays violin works one octave lower.

In March 2008 she gave a lecture-recital in the Sibelius Academy DocMus Department lecture series at the Cygnaeus Art Gallery in Helsinki. She talked about the lives and compositions of cellist-composers of the 19th century. She performed works by Romberg, J.-L. Duport, Servais, Davidoff and Popper.

In April 2007 Seeli Toivio was invited to be a jurymember at the first Belgian National Cello Competition, held in Ghent. In November 2007 Toivio was invited by the Festival Servais to make a Lecture-Recital at Palais de Academie in Brussels. In the Lecture, she talked about the left hand technique of the Belgian cellist François Servais (1807–1866) and the development of the left hand cello technique in German, French and Belgian cello schools in the 19th century. In the Recital Toivio performed works of Servais and her own arrangement of Wieniawsky’s Scherzo-Tarantella.

In the same evening she performed Servais Cello Concerto op. 5 at the Palais Beaux Arts of Brussels with DeFilharmonie and Paul Watkins, and the next day at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Antwerp.

Together with Peter François, President of the Servais Society, she is studying the contribution of the cellist-composer Adrien François Servais (1807–1866) to the development of cello technique.

Seeli Toivio has received grants and scholarships from numerous art foundations in Finland for studies and artistic working: Sibelius Academy, Sibelius Academy DocMus Department, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finnish Cultural Foundation Päijät-Häme Fund, Paulo Foundation, Konkordia Foundation, Pro Musica Foundation, Wegelius Foundation, Teacher Aino Ylhäinen’s Foundation, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Vilho and Lahja Koponen Foundation and Finnish Cultural Foundation.

In 2007 Seeli Toivio received one of the highest grants for artists in Finland, the three-year-grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation for her doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy.

Seeli Toivio plays on a cello made by David Tecchler in 1707, which has been given for her use by the Finnish Cultural Foundation until 2011.