[1] Katia and Marielle Labèque were born in Bayonne, on the southwest coast of France, near the Spanish border in Northern Basque Country.
They recorded their first album, Les Visions de l'Amen of Olivier Messiaen,[3] under the artistic direction of the composer, and continued to perform contemporary music, including works by Luciano Berio,[4] Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen.
This performance repertoire achieved some recognition, but celebrity arrived when their 1980 two-piano recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue sold over a half million copies.
They premiered "Four Movements" for two pianos by Philip Glass in France, England, and Italy, where in the summer of 2011 they opened the 48th Edition of the Chamber Music Festival of Cervo, Liguria; [15] [16] [17] and in Cuba.
In November 2011, they premiered the project "50 Years of Minimalism" at Kings Place, London,[18] with works by John Cage, David Chalmin, William Duckworth,[19] Arvo Pärt, Michael Nyman, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Howard Skempton and others.