m denney (she/they) is a sound artist, electronic musician, guitarist, writer, and occasionally lies about being a composer. Her practice focuses on the use of ritualized repetitive action, engaging technology and destructive, uncontrollable recording processes as ways of engaging with memory, self, and the construction of our pasts and histories. Called “haunting,” "crushing," and “violently joyful" m’s work looks to build aural spaces for raw, vulnerable intimacy. Her long-running project The Water Will Come uses poetry and performance texts to examine our relationships to nature, and relates ideas of queer experience through the discovery of the self-as-nature.
She is a frequent collaborator with dance and movement artists around her home base in Iowa City, including performances in Jennifer Kayle’s Turns at the Intersection. They are a member of sound collective This Machine, a founding member and music director for Washington D.C . based theatre company Beat on the Bard, and performs with experimental guitar group Trio Ampliphonic (with Alan S. Tofighi and Michael Jon Fink). m, has been a guest artist at many festivals, including the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble Festival, the Dogstar Festival, and the LA Philharmonic’s Noon-to-Midnight Festival. She has been an artist-in-residence at Public Space One and the Westben Arts Center
Alongside her practice as a performer and improviser, M has composed for a broad range of ensembles, including Aperture Duo, Dal Niente, and the JACK Quartet
Born in Iowa, m grew up in the Washington D.C. area, received a BM in Jazz Studies from Shenandoah University, and holds an MFA in Composition and Performance from California Institute of the Arts, where she studied with Michael Jon Fink, Wolfgang Von Schweinitz, and Michael Pisaro. She is currently pursuing a PhD.
She is a frequent collaborator with dance and movement artists around her home base in Iowa City, including performances in Jennifer Kayle’s Turns at the Intersection. They are a member of sound collective This Machine, a founding member and music director for Washington D.C . based theatre company Beat on the Bard, and performs with experimental guitar group Trio Ampliphonic (with Alan S. Tofighi and Michael Jon Fink). m, has been a guest artist at many festivals, including the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble Festival, the Dogstar Festival, and the LA Philharmonic’s Noon-to-Midnight Festival. She has been an artist-in-residence at Public Space One and the Westben Arts Center
Alongside her practice as a performer and improviser, M has composed for a broad range of ensembles, including Aperture Duo, Dal Niente, and the JACK Quartet
Born in Iowa, m grew up in the Washington D.C. area, received a BM in Jazz Studies from Shenandoah University, and holds an MFA in Composition and Performance from California Institute of the Arts, where she studied with Michael Jon Fink, Wolfgang Von Schweinitz, and Michael Pisaro. She is currently pursuing a PhD.