About
Katia and Marielle Labeque 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 Gražinytė-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Sir 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 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 with Maxim Emelyanichev in 2021 and New York Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden in 2022 at Carnegie Hall.
The Labeques 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 Waldbuhne, now available on DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100,000 attended the 2016 Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schönbrunn (now available on CD and DVD by SONY). More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.
They have created together with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin the "Dream House quartet" touring USA last April. Their project "Electric Fields" with Barbara Hannigan was premiered at Disney Hall this season followed by concerts at Aix-en-Provence Festival and Elb Philharmonie Hamburg.
They are working on their new project "SONIC WIRES" with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin. Their project "Electric Fields" with Barbara Hannigan was premiered at Disney Hall this season followed by concerts at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Elb Philharmonie Hamburg, Budapest Mupa, and Zurich Townhalle. They are currently touring their project the "Cocteau/Glass Trilogy" with stage director Cyril Teste and perfumer Francis Kurkdjian after the premiere in Paris Philharmonie followed by Bordeaux, Metz, Andorra, Dublin, London Barbican, Lyon Fourvieres Festival, and Ravel Festival.