Denman Maroney composes and plays "Hyperpiano", which involves stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming the piano strings with various objects: bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber independently of or (more often) in conjunction with regular keyboard action.

According to Wolf Kampmann of JazzThetik, "[K]eyboard genius Denman Maroney... [is] able to create and unfold a spectrum of sounds that range from new music to free jazz... The piano is so much estranged [sic] that it gives you the full array of sounds. Once again, Denman Maroney seems to be the only slide pianist worth mentioning."

"Chillingly good solo prepared piano." - Jeff Gibson, Other Music

"Maroney, who concentrates on prepared piano playing rather than doing it occasionally, is far more sophisticated than most." - Harvey Pekar, Downbeat

"In an ongoing work called 'Music for Unprepared Piano', Maroney whangs the strings of his Steinway L with glockenspiel tuning keys, savages them with butter knives, and diddles them with a potato masher.  On occasion, he'll wiggle the ends of marimba mallets against the soundboard to evoke barking seals.  At other times, he'll drop salad bowls onto the piano harp, dramatizing their reverberations with judicious pedaling or setting them jogging across the strings with tommy gun trills. Twitching with melodic tics, bewitched by detail and density, 'Unprepared Piano' is mood music for obsessive compulsives." - Mark Dery, Keyboard

"I have always been both fascinated and perplexed by all of the unique sounds [Maroney] gets. Hyperpiano is in a world of its own. There are three 20 plus minute pieces found here and each explores new realms of inner piano weirdness. Each piece involves a specific idea to explore. Flux Time utilizes three tempos simultaneously, but sounds like a music box breaking down, going in different directions at the same time. Artemisia involves moving objects across the piano strings, producing high end spirits whispering mysterious clouds of fractured notes. Pretty scary at times. On the Contrary employs sliding objects along the strings, rumbling through a dark terrain, ancient ruins uncovered, myths revealed." - Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter

Maroney's recording credits include: Tambastics (Music & Arts 704) with Robert Dick (flutes), Mark Dresser (bass) and Gerry Hemingway (percussion); Mark Dresser's Force Green (Soul Note 121273-2) with Theo Bleckman (voice), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Mark Dresser (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums); and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Knitting Factory Works 155) with Mark Dresser (bass) and Dave Douglas (trumpet).  

Maroney has just released a CD Hyperpiano (Mon$ey Music) of his own piano works. Other recordings to his credit include the Roulette Intermedium compilation A Confederacy of Dances Vol. 2 (Einstein Records EIN003) with Earl Howard (electronics) and Stockhausen. Performed by the Negative Band (Finnadar SR-9009) with Earl Howard (alto saxophone), Carl Stone (electronics), J. Paul Taylor (electronics), David Simons (percussion), Jon Weisberger (electronics) and Mike Fink (percussion).  

Maroney has an MFA in composition from California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with James Tenney, Steven Mosko and Alan Chaplin among others.