S-K-A-M e.V. promotes current, experimental and cross-cutting music in the Stuttgart metropolitan region and organizes the K-R-A-M concert series.
Inaugural meeting on January 17, 2015
The “Stuttgarter Kollektiv für aktuelle Musik” S-K-A-M e.V. has been bringing together the independent scene for new, experimental and improvised music in the greater Stuttgart area since 2015 and has been institutionally supported by the city of Stuttgart since 2018. The association currently has around 80 members and is growing. Through the presence of the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart with its Campus Gegenwart initiative and its educational focus on New Music, Stuttgart has become a magnet for interesting talents in this field, who subsequently find opportunities to develop further in our association. S-K-A-M serves as a platform for this growing community of professional musicians from the Stuttgart-based scene.
At a time when work opportunities for musicians in this genre were in sharp decline in Stuttgart, S-K-A-M stepped into the breach. We succeeded in reversing this trend by bundling activity and making quality visible. Our aim is to continue to inspire the dynamic development that we have set in motion and to intensify the presence of this lively scene in the Stuttgart area. To this end, S-K-A-M organizes the KRAM concert series and other events in which our member’s projects are realized, composition commissions are awarded and premiered and interdisciplinary art forms are produced. The diverse activities in the field of current music are made accessible to a wide audience through events at various venues, especially in public spaces. S-K-A-M works intensively to lift current musical languages out of their exclusivity and make them accessible to an audience outside of a restricted circle of experts. In this way, S-K-A-M promotes the art of music as a social force that actively contributes to the cohesion of culture.
The collective sees itself as a platform actively supported by its members, who promote their artistic work through working committees, project groups, networking and publications. Start-up funding for projects increases the radius of our artists’ actions and increasingly enables their international activities. We have close collaborations in the city with institutions such as Kunstraum 34, Galerie AKII, Gedok Stuttgart, JES, MdJ and HMDK Stuttgart. S-K-A-M’s reputation and reach have long since grown beyond the city’s borders, as we can clearly see from the inquiries and follow-up projects from our members. Exchange projects with countries such as Chile, Romania, Korea and the Ukraine have already been realized, raising Stuttgart’s profile as a New Music city with a cross-regional appeal.
SKAM Mission Statement
Stuttgart is home to a rich landscape of soloists and independent ensembles specializing in new and experimental music. S-K-A-M is a network for these protagonists that aims to promote exchange between the various “scenes” – both in purely practical matters and in aesthetic discourse.
Our goal is to make the diversity of contemporary music artists in Stuttgart visible and audible. The idea of process is central to us: we encourage an experimental attitude —courageous, risky, and open to failure. As Beckett said: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
We facilitate productive discourse that encourages participants to question and expand their own positions.
To this end, we support diversity in approaches to music: a wide variety of aesthetics, methods, and bodies. We connect people, initiatives, and places, sharing knowledge, infrastructure, and visibility.
New music needs publicity — stages, discussions, listening opportunities — so that it can resonate, provoke, comfort, and transform. For us, networking is both a driving force for production and a haven where resources circulate and community is formed.
We believe that art and music must first and foremost remain free of utilitarian constraints and possess intrinsic value. We defend the freedom of art against economic, political, and institutional constraints. We create conditions in which new music can emerge: fair pay, protected processes, and transparent decisions.
In our activities, we emphasize that musical experiences — and thus moments shared together — have social added value. They create the space in which society negotiates the foundations of its coexistence.
Interested in becoming a member or supporting S-K-A-M?
Please contact us at