The French sisters Labèque, Katia (born 11 March 1950) and Marielle (born 6 March 1952), form an internationally known piano duo. They have performed and recorded most of the repertoire for two pianos, spanning the instrumental, chamber, and concerto genres encompassing musical periods from Baroque through contemporary.
Katia and Marielle were born on the southwest coast of France near the Spanish border. The sisters' first teacher was their Italian mother, Ada Cecchi (a former student of Marguerite Long), who began lessons when her daughters were three and five years of age. Upon graduation in their mid-teens, the two undertook performance of contemporary music. While some degree of recognition came with this performance repertoire, true celebrity arrived when their 1980 two-piano recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue sold over a half million copies.[1]
Marielle Labèque is the spouse of the conductor Semyon Bychkov.[2]