Back in the 1980s, Gerhard Stäbler founded AKTIVE MUSIK in Essen and, from the 1990s onwards together with Kunsu Shim, initially focused for many years on festivals throughout the Ruhr region (culminating in the World Music Days 1995 in Essen) and then with many innovative events, emphasising contemporary music with a focus on Essen. From 2000 to 2010, at the invitation of Christoph Brockhaus, the long-time director of the Lehmbruck Museum, Shim and Stäbler established EarPort in Duisburg's inner harbour as a venue for experimental music and encounters between the arts. In 2011, they founded the Düsseldorf initiative d.ZENT, which has since made a name for itself with performance concerts and projects in various cultural institutions in the state capital. In this environment, they have established ongoing working relationships with like-minded musicians who perform in the EarPort Ensemble or as guests.

Since the reopening of EarPort in October 2015, Shim and Stäbler have realised numerous concepts in sustainable cooperation with partners from the region such as Schlosstheater Moers, DIE GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW (Kunstpalast Düsseldorf), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, K20 Düsseldorf (Kunstsammlung NRW), NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Schloss Benrath, Muziek Biennale Niederrhein, Essener Forum für Kunst und Architektur, Kunstlabor Essen, 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. During the ‘pandemic season’ of 2020/21, Shim & Stäbler digitally implemented major projects such as TIEFEN·SCHÄRFE – two performance concerts as part of the Muziek Biennale Niederrhein – and the Quadrophonien concert series in collaboration with composers from Ukraine, Great Britain and South Korea.

Regular guest performances as composers, performance artists and lecturers take Shim and Stäbler to Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey, the USA (in 2018 to the Universities of North Texas/Denton, Chicago and Northwestern/Evanston) and South America (in 2022 as visiting professors at the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad de la República de Uruguay in Montevideo). 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 an ongoing working relationship with the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa ensemble, which led to invitations to the Festival de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa and the VI. International Composition Competition GMCL/Jorge Peixinho, guest performances in Portugal and, as part of an artistic exchange, further concerts in Weimar, the Azores and Duisburg (with a DVD recording sponsored by MKW and the Kunststiftung NRW). There are also long-standing connections with the Korean video artist Kyungwoo Chun: Since 2009, the joint project TRIALOG has resulted in a book publication, concerts and workshops (including performances at the Seoul Oil Tank Culture Park in 2018).

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

In 2022, ARE-Verlag Bochum published DAZWISCHEN. Die Zusammenarbeit der Komponisten Kunsu Shim und Gerhard Stäbler (Between: The Collaboration of Composers Kunsu Shim and Gerhard Stäbler), edited by Elisabeth von Leliwa. Current CD releases from Edition EarPort include three portrait CDs (Kunsu Shim: Kammermusik, Gerhard Stäbler: DAY BY DAY, Gerhard Stäbler: Papier · Wort · Tod · Spur) as well as the live recording of the collaborative concept MAGISCHE SPIELE.

In 2025, the preliminary estate of Shim and Stäbler – including compositions and an extensive collection of documents – was affiliated with the Rheinisches Musikarchiv under the aegis of the Heinrich Heine Institute in Düsseldorf.