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Music

A Man Is Assembling A Comprehensive Index of Female Experimental Composers

Over 1000 women listed under categories that include "electronic" and "noise"

Some years ago, a man named Steve Peters started helping a Juilliard student compile a list of female composers. Their list grew from a mere five of which "three of whom were dead," into something much more comprehensive. Now Peters has taken that research and used it to launch a website dedicated to indexing female avant-garde composers, both historical and contemporary and from all across the globe.

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Many Many Women went live on October 19, with only a hundred or so women forming the index; this past Wednesday, the site reached 1000 entries, which now include legendary names such as Alice Coltrane and Pauline Oliveros, to contemporary pioneers Laurel Halo and Pharmakon, to international names such Argentine noise cellist Ceclia Quinteros and the Chinese experimental composer Kui Dong.

Using an open submission call and guideline, readers of the site are able to submit composers to be added to the index. Under a wide range of genres, including "Jazz," "Classical," "Electronic" and "Noise" the index lists composers alphabetically by last name along with their country or origin. Links from the names takes you to the artist's website, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp page. If no media sites are available, a wikipedia entry, or even a New York Times obit, will suffice.

Prepare to get lost for hours…