They combine the qualities that I associate with some of the 20th-century’s best duo piano teams: the Labèque sisters’ verve and dynamism, the Kontarsky brothers’ rigor and clarity, and Tal and Groethuysen’s sensitivity.” FANFARE MAGAZINE

Piano duos are the skating couples of classical music: the formation stands for perfect musical harmony down to the smallest fingertip, and it is no coincidence that many of the most famous duos are siblings, sometimes even identical twins. The spirited sisters Mona and Rica Bard are quite obviously not the latter, but their somnambulistic ensemble playing leads listeners and reviewers to effusive praise - four hands, two sisters, one pulse!

Mona & Rica Bard started playing together in their childhood and have been playing piano four hands and on two pianos ever since. They have captivated audiences throughout the globe for more than two decades and form one of today`s leading piano duos.

National and international prizes and awards, concert engagements in Europe, Asia and the USA, renowned festival venues and invitations from well-known orchestras as well as numerous radio and television recordings prove that the duo knows how to combine technical brilliance and intoxicating temperament with sensitive artistic expression.

Their musical partners include the percussionists of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chinese percussionist Li Biao, KrausFrink Percussion, the jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine, as well as the conductors Ariane Matiakh and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The sisters have drawn important artistic inspiration from their work with the duo Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl, Yaara Tal/Andreas Groethuysen as well as from Katia Labèque, Leonard Hokanson, Konstanze Eickhorst and Alfons Kontarsky.

In 2012 the Piano Duo Mona & Rica Bard recorded their debut album PAS DE DEUX (audite/Deutschlandradio Kultur) with French music for piano duo, receiving outstanding acclaim by the international music press. In 2015, the label Capriccio released the sisters` second album with the concertos for two pianos and orchestra by Francis Poulenc and Jean Françaix (the latter as first CD recording ever since the composer`s own LP recording in 1967), followed by a live-recording of the double concerto by Max Bruch in 2020 (also on the Capriccio label).


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