Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Daughters of Ada Cecchi (who was, herself, a pupil of Marguerite Long), Katia and Marielle had a childhood filled with music. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music.) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.
They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Jarvi,Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Georges Pretre , Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Katia and Marielle are performing in the most prestigious venues and Festivals including the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, ‘Mostly Mozart’ (New York), The Proms (London), Ravinia, Ruhr, Tanglewood, Salzburg… They scored a huge success before a record audience of more than 33,000 spectators at a gala concert closing of the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne.
They have appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel and Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon. They recently toured with Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.
Katia and Marielle had the privilege of working with composers including Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen. Next creation will be the Concerto of Richard Dubugnon for two pianos and orchestra to be premiered in Los Angeles in November 2011 with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, followed by performances in Paris with Orchestre de Paris and Leipzig with Gewandhaus Orchestra.
They recently released a CD with a new version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein's West Side Story on their own label, KML Recordings. The Labèques created KML Recordings to reflect their aspiration to build a bridge crossing all aspects of contemporary creation.
They launched the KML Foundation aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertory through meetings between artists of all fields.
They are currently working on a new project 'The minimalist Dream House" inspired by the early 1961 concerts curated by La Monte Young at Yoko Ono's downtown New York loft. Katia and Marielle Labèque and an assortment of friends from the alternative rock and classical worlds come together to celebrate this revolutionary new movement and its many waves of influence.
