Short biography

Kunsu Shim (born 1958) is a composer and performance artist, also working as a photo and installation artist. Significant composition commissions include AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS for soprano and orchestra (Essen Philharmonie), the orchestral work AND HERE AGAIN – EINE PERLENLANDSCHAFT (Würzburg Philharmonic and Kunststiftung NRW), WOLKEN.BLINDENSCHRIFT for soprano, vocal ensemble and orchestra (Diocese of Würzburg) and DAS FEINE, DAS FLÜCHTIGE (Ensembles Bit20, Norway). Most recently, he composed the ensemble works leise, frei and KLEINES, FERNES, the string quartet luft.inneres, and, for the anniversary BTHVN2020, the orchestral work VON HIER FORT? – Ein Intermezzo zu Beethovens Sinfonie Nr. 7 and the performance with Beethoven symphonies for several record players … ÖFFNETE PLÖTZLICH DIE AUGEN. Since Das Andere, Inneres for piano(s) with keyboard player and string player in 2019, Shim has been developing fundamentally new possibilities for piano composition. In 2023, the Luna Quartet premiered his string quartet so seidig, so subtil at the OPENING Festival Trier.

Kunsu Shim’s work as a photo and installation artist has also been documented in solo exhibitions in Kassel (2021), at the Kunstverein Trier (2024, supplemented by a portrait concert at the Trier University of Applied Sciences) and in the exhibition project IM KINOSAAL at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in spring 2025. In fact, 2025 has proven to be a particularly productive year for Shim: with his new compositions QUASI NIENTE for string quartet, DAS UNSTILLBARE I and II for strings, WENN EIN GLÜCKLICHES FÄLLT for solo cello and a new work for solo viola, Kunsu Shim will make a strong mark on the EarPort 2026 programme.

Since the early 1990s, his collaboration with German composer Gerhard Stäbler has also been influential, ranging from the original concept of performance music to joint compositions. From 2000 to 2010, Shim and Stäbler established EarPort in Duisburg’s inner harbour as a venue for experimental music and encounters between the arts. Since its reopening in 2015, they have realised numerous concepts there in cooperation with partners from the region such as Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, K20 Düsseldorf (Kunstsammlung NRW), DIE GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW (Kunstpalast Düsseldorf), NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Schloss Benrath, Muziek Biennale Niederrhein, Schlosstheater Moers, Essener Forum für Kunst und Architektur, Philharmonie Essen, Musikbibliothek Essen, as well as national and international partners such as the Diocese of Würzburg, OPENING Festival Trier, Bergen Festival, Borealis Festival, LONDON EAR Festival, MusikTheaterLabor at Bruckner Private University Linz, Creative Performance Lab at Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and many more.

Regular guest performances take Shim and Stäbler to Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey and the USA. Their stay as artists-in-residence at the GALATA artist residence of the Kunststiftung NRW in Istanbul in 2022/23 has led to close artistic relationships with the ARTER Museum, several Istanbul universities and the renowned HEZARFEN Ensemble. Shim and Stäbler also have ongoing working relationships with the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa ensemble and with Korean video artist Kyungwoo Chun in the joint project TRIALOG.

Highlights in 2025 include an invitation to AuditivVokal Dresden's New Year's concert at the Leonhardi Museum there, workshops and performance concerts in Istanbul (ARTER Museum, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Austrian Cultural Forum) and a tour in November with concerts and workshops as part of TRIALOG in Seoul, Korea.