“The best piano duo in front of an audience today”
New York Times
“The Labèque sisters are tremendous. They are great performers, and great interpreters. And they are wonderful supporters of music- not only modern music, but just music. It is great to work with them”
Philip Glass
“Whether Mozart or Stravinsky, their musical line always sounds as if it’s being woven for the very first time… But the illusion of improvisation is the genius of their performances. In all their recordings there is a deceptive sprezzatura that is born of throwing the preparation to the winds and hanging onto each others ears.”
The Times
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 have played 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, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Pretre, 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 with Andrea Marcon, il Pomo d’Oro with Maxim Emelyanichev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment and 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 Storgards and the new concerto written by Nico Muhly « in Certain Circles » was premiered by Orchestre de Paris at the Phiharmonie under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev in july 21 and will have the USA premiere at Carnegie Hall with New York Philharmonie in april 2022 under the direction of Jaap van Zweden. The Labèques play 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, 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 in Schonbrunn. More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television. For their own label KML recordings, they have released a CD box Sisters (2014). 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 Almodovar) and filmed by Felix Cabez is released by EuroArts. Their biography, “Une vie a quatre mains” by Renaud Machart is published by Buchet-Chastel. The Labèques’ label KML Recordings joined the historical label Deutsche Grammophon and released five albums: "Invocations”, “Love Stories”, “Amoria”, “Moondog”, and “El Chan” dedicated entirely to American composer Bryce Dessner . They now have released an album dedicated to the music of Philip Glass “Les Enfants Terribles”. At the invitation of the Philharmonie Hall in Paris for a special « Week End », attention was focused on “Amoria”, “Invocations” and their new project “Dream House quartet” for two guitars and two pianos with David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner with Thom Yorke as special guest. They will premiere a new piece by Anna Thorvaldsdottir written for the Dream House quartet at Royal festival Hall London in June 2022. After concerts in Europe next Autumn, the quartet will be touring USA in Spring 2023. They are currently working on their project with Barbara Hannigan « Electric Fields » with live videos by Netia Jones and live electronics by David Chalmin. This project will be premiered at Disney Hall Los Angeles next Autumn.
Website: www.labeque.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/labeque.official
Twitter: @KMLabeque
Instagram: @katiamariellelabeque
Instagram Katia Labeque: @katialabeque