Born in 1949, New York City-based acoustic pianist Denman Maroney heard the innovators of bop, but was more drawn to 20th century composers, creative improvisers, and natural urban and rural sounds. His formal music studies after high school took place at the Bennington College in Vermont (1969-1971), Williams College (1971), and the California Institute of Arts (1972-1974). The master musicians he was instructed by include Bill Dixon, Jimmy Garrison, James Tenney, John Bergamo, Ingram Marshall, and Morton Subotnick. This wide range of innovative teachers led him to the concept of utilizing extended bowing and sliding techniques on the strings of the piano by manipulating certain objects on them while playing the keys to create different resonances and dissonances. Dubbing the technique "hyperpiano," Maroney has experimented with and refined this inside-out concept to achieve unique voicings now extrapolated upon by others. He is also fond of mixed or odd-metered time signatures, often juxtaposing them. Though he was not the first to do this -- Cecil Taylor, Burton Greene, and Fred Van Hove come to mind -- Maroney has achieved admiration for pioneering and extending this approach. He has received numerous grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the New York State Council for the Arts, and others. Musicians with whom he has collaborated include Mat Maneri, Leroy Jenkins, Mark Dresser, Ned Rothenberg, Dave Ballou, Earl Howard, Dave Douglas, Gerry Hemingway, Robert Dick, Kevin Norton, Tim Berne, and Min Xiao-Fen. ~ Michael G. Nastos