Katia Labèque was born March 11, 1950, in Bayonne, France, and is the elder of the celebrated Labèque piano-duo sisters. Taught first by her Italian mother, a former student of Marguerite Long, she graduated in piano from the Conservatoire de Paris in 1968, after which she and sister Marielle began building a career centered on repertoire for piano four-hands and two pianos, including contemporary works by Berio and Boulez.

Katia and Marielle Labèque’s 1980 two-piano recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue sold over half a million copies, and Katia has also performed with guitarist John McLaughlin’s band in the early 1980s. She co-founded KML Recordings (2007) and the Fondazione Katia e Marielle Labèque (2005), has had works dedicated to her by composers including Philip Glass, and collaborated with Thom Yorke on the 2019 ‘Minimalist Dream House’ project; she received a 2024 nomination in France’s Order of Arts and Letters.