Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. 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, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Filarmonia della Scala, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Santa Cecilia and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of John Adams, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.
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 Orchestra with Andrea Marcon, Il Pomo d’Oro with Maxim Emelyanichev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.
Katia and Marielle have had the privilege of working with many composers including Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Nico Muhly and Olivier Messiaen. At Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles they presented the world premiere of Philip Glass’s new Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, the world premiere of Bryce Dessner’s concerto at Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Storgårds and the new concerto written by Nico Muhly “in Certain Circles” was premiered by Orchestre de Paris with Maxim Emelyanichev in 2021 and New York Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden in 2022.
In Germany, they can be experienced in the 2023/24 season with the SWR Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev and Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E-flat Major K 365.
The Labèques play in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, BBC Proms, Ravinia, Tanglewood and Salzburg. An 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 DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100.000 attended the Vienna Summer Night Concert 2016 in Schönbrunn (now available on CD and DVD by SONY), where Katia and Marielle played with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Semyon Bychkov. More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.
For their own label KML recordings, they have released the CD box “Sisters” (2014) with a selection of musical pieces from their personal and professional lives. Previous releases include a Gershwin-Bernstein album and their project Minimalist Dream House (50 years of minimalist music). The DVD “The Labeque Way, a letter to Katia and Marielle by Alessandro Baricco” produced by El Deseo (Pedro and Augustin Almodóvar) and filmed by Felix Cabez is released by EuroArts. Their biography, “Une vie a quatre mains” by Renaud Machart is published by Buchet-Chastel.
Labèque’s label KML Recordings joined the historical label Deutsche Grammophon and released various albums: “Invocations”, “Love Stories”, “Amoria”, “Moondog”, “El Chan” -dedicated entirely to American composer Bryce Dessner and “Glass – Les Enfants Terribles”. Their latest album "Dream House Quartet" was released in April 2023. Together with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin, the piano duo performs commissioned works by visionary composers and key contemporary works of the last half century.
At the invitation of the Philharmonie Hall in Paris for a special « Week End », attention was focused on “Amoria”, “Invocations” and their new project for two guitars and two pianos with David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner including a piece written for them by Thom Yorke “Don’t fear the Light” with Thom Yorke as special guest.
www.labeque.com / Facebook: www.facebook.com/labeque.official / Twitter: @KMLabeque
As of Season 2023/2024
Please use this by Weigold & Böhm authorized Biography only.
