Katia Labèque, born on March 11, 1950, and Marielle Labèque, born on March 6, 1952, are renowned French pianist sisters, celebrated for their captivating performances as a piano duo.
Born in Bayonne, a charming coastal town in southwestern France, near the Spanish border, the sisters' early life was marked by a strong musical influence. Their father, a doctor, rugby football player, and music enthusiast, sang in the Bordeaux Opera choir. The sisters' mother, Ada Cecchi, a former student of Marguerite Long, began teaching them piano when they were just three and five years old.
Upon graduating from the Conservatoire de Paris in 1968, Katia and Marielle embarked on a journey to master the piano four hands and two pianos repertoire. They recorded their debut album, Les Visions de l'Amen, featuring Olivier Messiaen's work, under the guidance of the composer himself. This marked the beginning of their illustrious career, which would take them to perform contemporary music, including pieces by Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, György Ligeti, and Olivier Messiaen.
Their breakthrough came in 1980 with the release of their two-piano recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which sold over half a million copies. This commercial success paved the way for the sisters to expand their repertoire beyond traditional classical music, exploring genres such as jazz, ragtime, flamenco, minimal music, baroque music on period instruments, and even pop music and experimental rock.
In 1998, Katia and Marielle discovered their passion for baroque music, collaborating with Marco Postinghel to commission the construction of two Silberman fortepianos. They went on to perform with renowned ensembles, including Il Giardino Armonico, Musica Antiqua Köln, the English Baroque Soloists, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
The sisters have performed at iconic venues, including the Waldbühne gala concert, where they entertained a crowd of 33,000 people, and Schönbrunn Palace, where they played to an audience of over 100,000 people in 2016, accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
Throughout their career, many composers have written works specifically for Katia and Marielle, including Luciano Berio's "Linea," Michael Nyman's "Water Dances," Richard Dubugnon's "Battlefield," Osvaldo Golijov and Gonzalo Grau's "Nazareno," Louis Andriessen's "The Hague Hacking," Philippe Boesmans' "Capriccio," and Philip Glass's "Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra," which premiered in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
