Katia Labèque

Katia Labèque, a pianist from France, has maintained an enduring partnership with her sister Marielle in the piano duo known as Katia & Marielle Labèque. Born during 1950 in Hendaye, she first took up the instrument at age five. Her mother, Ada Cecchi—an established pianist who had trained with Marguerite Long—provided her initial guidance, while her father, a performer who performed in the Bordeaux Opera choir, added a musical environment at home. Together with Marielle she later trained under Lucette Descaves at the Paris Conservatory; after completing their studies in 1968 they entered the cycle de perfectionnement with Jean Hubeau, concentrating on literature for two pianos. Their first release, Olivier Messiaen: Visions De L'Amen, appeared the next year, followed in the 1970s by Bartok: Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion, Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes; Suite No. 2, and Hindemith - Martinu. Recordings and concert tours gradually built their audience, yet global recognition arrived with the 1980 album Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, which surpassed half a million copies sold. The sisters earned distinction for both core repertory and new music, prompting dedicated scores from Philip Glass, Luciano Berio, and Arvo Pärt. In the 1980s Labèque was married to jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin; the couple performed together and issued the albums Belo Horizonte, Music Spoken Here, and Mediterranean. During the late 1990s the duo turned to Baroque repertoire and collaborated with conductors including Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, and Andrea Marcon. Following a decade away from the studio, the sisters established their own KML Recordings imprint in 2007 to document their work and to support emerging or cross-genre groups such as Dream House, Kalakan, and Red Velvet. Throughout the 2010s Labèque stayed active on the KML label, releasing Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; Bernstein: West Side Story and Minimalist Dream House. From 2020 onward she has introduced pieces by Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner and appeared on the albums Nazareno: Bernstein, Stravinsky, Golijov and Philip Glass: Cocteau Trilogy.