Short biography

Composition

Gerhard Stäbler (b. 1949) is one of the most distinguished composers of his generation. A steady stream of commissions (including the Witten Days for New Chamber Music, the Donaueschingen Music Festival, Musica Viva organised by Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Festival Mouvement organised by Saarländischer Rundfunk, WDR Cologne and the Kunststiftung NRW) and repeated invitations to serve as composer-in-residence (e.g. at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf-Duisburg, Sonic Fusion Festival in Edinburgh, the Borealis Festival in Norway, Dias de música electroacústica in Portugal, and the GALATA Artists’ Residency in Istanbul run by the Kunststiftung NRW) attest to Gerhard Stäbler’s influence and significance within the contemporary music scene. To mark the composer’s 70th birthday, major retrospective concerts were held in Seoul, Busan, Stuttgart, Cologne and Duisburg. In 2024, Stäbler received the German Music Authors’ Prize in the ‘Percussion Composition’ category.

World premieres in 2026 include the string quartet WIDERSCHEIN at the OPENING Festival in Trier with the Luna Quartet Amsterdam, as well as several vocal compositions for the Dresden-based ensemble AuditivVokal. Following the successful premiere of PROLOG for ensemble (from: SALZ) in Hallstatt as part of the 2024 Capital of Culture: Salzkammergut, the full-length opera SALZ (based on Peter Handke’s short story ‘Kali’) will have its world premiere in autumn 2027 at the Landestheater Linz (Austria) and will subsequently be performed in Bolzano and Trento (Italy).

EarPort Duisburg and International Activities

From 2000 to 2010, Gerhard Stäbler and his partner Kunsu Shim established the centre for contemporary music EarPort at the invitation of the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, where the two composers further developed their original concept of performance music and performance concerts. Within this framework, Stäbler also regularly appears as a performer and reciter. In 2015, EarPort was reopened as a venue for experimental encounters between the arts. Since then, Shim and Stäbler have realised numerous projects in ongoing collaboration with regional partners such as the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, K20 Düsseldorf (Kunstsammlung NRW), the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Benrath Palace, DIE GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW (Kunstpalast Düsseldorf), the Muziek Biennale Niederrhein, Schlosstheater Moers, the Essen Forum for Art and Architecture, the Philharmonie Essen and the Essen Music Library, as well as with partners across Germany, such as the Diocese of Würzburg and the OPENING Festival Trier.

Portrait concerts, performances, guest lectures and workshops have taken Stäbler and Shim to many European countries, to Australia, North and South America, Israel, Japan and Korea. Their international partners include the Bergen Festival, the Borealis Festival, the LONDON EAR Festival, the MusikTheaterLabor at the Bruckner Private University in Linz, the University of North Texas (Denton), the Ragdale Foundation, the University of Chicago, DePaul University and Northwestern University, the University of the Arts (EUM) in Montevideo, Uruguay, the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and many others.

During the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, they realised numerous major projects digitally, such as TIEFEN·SCHÄRFE as part of the Muziek Biennale Niederrhein, or the concert series Quadrophonien in collaboration with composers from Ukraine, the UK, the Netherlands and South Korea. Their time as artists-in-residence at the GALATA Artists’ Residence of the Kunststiftung NRW in Istanbul in 2022/23 led to the development of close artistic ties with the ARTER Museum, several Istanbul universities and the renowned HEZARFEN Ensemble. Shim and Stäbler also maintain an ongoing working relationship with the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa.

In 2026, Stäbler and Shim were once again represented at the OPENING Trier sound art festival with world premieres and, in collaboration with the Dresden-based ensemble AuditivVokal, developed a multi-part ‘WandelKonzert’ in partnership with the Kunsthalle and Malkasten in Düsseldorf. In autumn 2026, the two composers continued their collaboration with the HEZARFEN Ensemble and Turkish composers in Duisburg and Istanbul (ARTER Museum, MIAM/Technical University and the Conservatoire of Bahçeşehir University).

In 2025, Stäbler and Shim’s estate – comprising compositions and an extensive collection of documents – was incorporated into the Rheinisches Musikarchiv under the auspices of the Heinrich Heine Institute in Düsseldorf.