The œuvre of Gerhard Stäbler (born 1949) includes compositions for music and dance theater, for orchestra, ensembles, vocal and chamber music, electronic music, and performances.
From 2000 to 2010, Gerhard Stäbler and his partner Kunsu Shim established EarPort, a centre for contemporary music at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, where the two composers continue to evolve their concepts of PerformanceMusik and PerformanceKonzerte. In this context, Stäbler also appears as a performer and reciter. Shim and Stäbler collaborate with numerous institutions such as Kunsthalle, Tonhalle and the Heinrich Heine Institute in Düsseldorf. At the same time, they develop interdisciplinary concepts for international institutions, such as Trialog with Korean video artist Kyungwoo Chun (with the bilingual art-music publication bild.klang.los). In 2020 and 2021, they digitally implemented the TIEFEN·SCHÄRFE project as part of the Muziek Biennale Niederrhein and the Quadrophonien concert series with composers from Ukraine, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and South Korea.
In 2019 and 2022/23, Stäbler and Shim were awarded residencies spanning several weeks at the NRW Art Foundation in Istanbul, where they conceived the concert project Good-Bye Paradise? – PerformanceSpiele at the ARTER Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art with the Hezarfen Ensemble. In 2024, Gerhard Stäbler received the German Music Authors’ Prize in the category of percussion composition.
Stäbler and Shim tour internationally with portrait concerts, performances, guest lectures, and workshops in Europe, Australia, North and South America, Israel, Japan, and Korea. In 2018, with the support of the Goethe Institute, they toured the USA with residencies, concerts, and lectures at the University of North Texas, the Ragdale Foundation, Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, among other locations. In 2017 and 2022, they served as visiting professors at the University of the Arts (EUM) in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in 2023 they will be guest lecturers at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
World premieres and country premieres have taken place in Norway (Borealis Festival, Bergen International Festival, Norske Opera Oslo), Düsseldorf (Tonhalle), Tokyo (Music Documents 13), Karlsruhe (Festival ZeitGenuss, ZKM Festival Piano plus), Cologne (Acht Brücken), Frankfurt (hr-Sinfonieorchester), and Kiev, among other cities. A commission from the NRW art institute led to Stäbler’s vocal composition all is to be dared for auditivvokal Dresden and the large ensemble works TIEFEN·SCHÄRFE and Lob des Selben for the Beethoven Year 2020. He is currently working on a new music theatre work for the Landestheater Linz, Austria.
Stäbler’s work has been honoured in several publications, including Paul Attinello, Gerhard Stäbler. live / the opposite / daring – music, graphic, concept, event (2015), and DAZWISCHEN. The collaboration between composers Kunsu Shim and Gerhard Stäbler by Elisabeth von Leliwa (2022). Works on CD include Piano Music by Gerhard Stäbler | Kunsu Shim with pianist Martin Tchiba (2022) and Musik der (Un)Ruhe/Music of (Dis)Quiet on DVD (2023).
As of October 2025