Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ¬ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age when 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 performing world-wide.
They are regular guests with prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayer-ischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and more. The duo has performed under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Kristjan Jarvi, Paavo Jarvi, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin and Mi-chael Tilson Thomas, among others.
The Labèques have played in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, Mostly Mozart, The BBC Proms, Ravinia, Ruhr, Tanglewood and Salzburg. A record audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, now available on “Medici” DVD.
Katia and Marielle Labèque have had the privilege of working with composers Louis An-driessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen. In November 2011 they premiered Richard Dubugnon’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra 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.
The Labèques recently released a new recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s West Side Story on their own label, KML Recordings. Their recording of Naza-reno (Osvaldo Golijov/Gonzalo Grau) has recently been released on the Deutsche Gram-mophon label. They have also launched the KML Foundation aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertory through meetings between artists of all fields.
2011 closed with 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. The Labèques and an assortment of friends from the alternative rock and classical worlds came together to celebrate this revolutionary movement and its many waves of influence in the intervening 50 years. 2012 will see the release of a documentary “The Labèque Way” produced by Pedro Almodovar and filmed by Felix Cabez.
