Visit this artist's website: http://www.labeque.com

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

The Labèques boast 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 Philharmonic. 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, the Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwigsburg, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Mostly Mozart New York, the Proms, Ravinia, Rheingau, Ruhr, Schleswig Holstein, Tanglewood, and the Salzburg Easter and Pentecost festivals.

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 Reinhard Goebel, Venice Baroque Orchestra with Andrea Marcon, and the Gabrieli Players with Paul McCreesh. For the Bach Anniversary Year, the Labèques’ 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. 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 comprised 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 of 2008, KML Recordings released De Fuego y de Agua, a CD featuring Katia and Marielle Labèque in a special collaboration with the renowned flamenco artist Mayte Martín. To see their full discography, go to kmlrecordings.com.

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 2009/10 season, under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, the sisters premiered Louis Andriessen’s Double Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as Osvaldo Golijov/Gonzalo Grau’s Nazareno with the Orchestre de Paris and Joan Albert Amargos’ Paisajes Sonoros de España with the Orquesta Nacional de España. In February 2010 they brought the North American premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Suite from La Pasión segun San Marcos to the Toronto Symphony’s New Creations Festival, immediately following the work’s world premiere in Paris. They were also the artists-in-residence at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig for the 2009/10 season. In September 2011 the duo returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with conductor Juanjo Mena, performing Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos.

For more information please visit the Labèques’ website: labeque.com.