Katia Labèque

Pianist

Katia and Marielle Labèque are renowned for the energy and synchronicity of their duets. They are regularly invited as guest performers by the most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunks, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Vienna Philharmonic, led by conductors such as Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Prêtre, Simon Rattle, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jaap van Zweden.

In 2005, an audience of more than 33,000 attended a concert they gave at Berlin’s famous Waldbühne theater with the Berlin Philharmonic and conducted by Rattle (available on DVD from EuroArts). A record-breaking crowd of 100,000 watched them at the Vienna Summer Night Concert at Schönbrunn Palace in 2016 (now available on CD and DVD from Sony). Over 1.5 million viewers worldwide followed the event on television. 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, and Olivier Messiaen.

In April 2019, they were invited to a weekend event held by the Philharmonie de Paris during which they presented their projects: Amoria, Invocations, and the creation of Don’t Fear the Light, an original work by British singer Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin on guitar, accompanied by electronics and vocals.

Katia and Marielle Labèque premiered Philip Glass’ Double Concerto at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel; Bryce Dessner’s concerto at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic and John Storgårds; and Nico Muhly’s In Certain Circles at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre de Paris and Maxim Emelyanychev. The US premiere of this last work took place at New York’s Carnegie Hall in April 2022 and was conducted by Jaap van Zweden. After the recent releases of Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy (2024) and Sonic Wires with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin (2024), Katia and Marielle Labèque will unveil 55: a three-CD boxset including 55 pieces in celebration of their 55 years of recordings and live performances (2026).