These nonconformist pianists boast a repertory from the eclectic to the unexpected. Daughters of Ada Cecchi, a former student of Marguerite Long, KATIA AND MARIELLE LABÈQUE spent a childhood filled with music. Their repertoire includes a broad range of material, from Bach on period instruments to the 21st century contemporary composers.

They have a stunning career throughout the world and have been guests of the most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Vienna Philharmonie. They have played under the direction of conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Eschenbach, and Michael Tilson Thomas. They are regular guests at festivals, including Berlin, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Mostly Mozart New York, The Proms, Ravinia, Rheingau, Ruhr, Schleswig Holstein, Tanglewood, and the Salzburg Easter and Pentecote festivals. For more information, please visit their website: labeque.com.

Katia and Marielle have appeared with many Baroque period ensembles, including The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antiqua Köln with Reinhart Goebel, Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, and the Gabrieli Players with Paul McCreesh. For the Bach Centennial, the Labèque’s concert at the Vienna Musikverein with Il Giardino Armonico was televised worldwide by ORF and recorded on DVD.

Beginning with their first release, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, on the Philips label, Katia and Marielle Labèque have enjoyed tremendous success with their numerous recordings for Philips, Sony and EMI.

The aspiration to build a bridge crossing all aspects of contemporary creation has led Katia and Marielle to form their own label, KML Recordings (kmlrecordings.com). Transgressing conventions and boundaries, KML Recordings brings together the unexpected in meaningful and artistic ways, constantly associating sounds and images. Their vision goes beyond classical music to look at new territories where rock, electronic, contemporary, improvisation, and video have their say. The first releases in 2007 comprise an all-Ravel program, including a new version of Bolero (from the composer himself), a Stravinsky and Debussy CD/DVD directed by video artist Tal Rosner, and a Mozart and Schubert CD. In September 2008, KML Recordings released De Fuego Y De Agua, a CD featuring Katia and Marielle in a special collaboration with the renowned Flamenco artist Mayte Martín.

In 2005 Katia and Marielle Labèque launched the KML Foundation (fondazionekml.com) aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertory through meetings between artists of all fields – musicians, film-makers, or writers. One of their projects is a program for children under the auspices of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation’s program, Zukunft@BPhil, brought into existence by Sir Simon Rattle.

In the 2008/09 season, Katia and Marielle Labèque opened the season of the San Francisco Symphony and also performed with the Symphony on tour at Carnegie Hall. In January 2009, under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, they premiered Louis Andriessen’s Double Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In February 2010 they performed the North American premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Suite from La Pasión según de San Marcos at the Toronto Symphony’s New Creations Festival, immediately following the work’s world premiere in Paris.

The duo’s 2010/11 season will bring them on a coast-to-coast tour of the United States offering Joan Albert Amargós’ Concerto for Two Pianos with the National Orchestra of Spain.