Katia Labèque & Marielle Labèque
Biography Katia Labèque & Marielle Labèque
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,Gustavo Dudamel, 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.
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 and recently toured with Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.
Their North American engagements in the upcoming season begin with a return to the Hollywood Bowl, Toronto's Summer Music Festival and in the Spring of 2014 a recital tour in which Bernstein's West Side Story in a special arrangement for two pianos and two percussionists will be featured. During the fall they will make their first visit to Australia in recitals as well as orchestral concerts in Sydney and Melbourne.
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.
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.
They recently released a new recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein's West Side Story on their own label, KML Recordings. 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. 2014 highlights included the release of a documentary “The Labèque Way” produced by'El Deseo' ( Pedro Almodovar ) and filmed by Felix Cabez and concerts in Vienna with The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Musikverein with Semyon Bychkov conducting.
2013 saw the release of their 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. Musicians 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. The 3 CD was released in February at the time of their series of concerts in Paris at 'La Cité de la Musique'.
