Wendy MaHarry is a New York-based singer-songwriter, composer, and painter.… Read Full Bio ↴Wendy MaHarry is a New York-based singer-songwriter, composer, and painter. MaHarry has released three studio albums: "Wendy Maharry" (1990), "Fountain of Youth" (1991), and "Released" (2000) - the latter of which was a self-published double-album, and later re-released in the Netherlands in 2002. MaHarry's music is piano-based, and has been compared to Jill Sobule, Tori Amos, and Marianne Faithfull. Her artwork has been described as "magic realism" in style, and her medium is oil pastel.

MaHarry was born in Indianapolis, raised in Rochester, and was educated in Buffalo. She came from a creative family, and her artistic inclanations were refined at a very young age. She began writing songs in third grade. Along with piano, MaHarry also played the flute in elementary school, and the french horn in her high school's band. When she wasn't playing music in her youth, she was running track, playing basketball, swimming, ice skating, and pursuing her other artistic passion - painting. While living in Rochester at the age of 16, MaHarry recorded a simple piano and vocal demo tape of a few songs she had written, and her father suggested she give the tape to Dwight Marcus, who would later produce her debut album for A&M. At the time, MaHarry's father was the Executive Vice President of the same advertising agency as Marcus, who worked on commercial jingles. MaHarry recieved an encouraging letter from Marcus which would be the extent of their first encounter, until four years later when they met in person, toting another tape and her synthesizer. This time, Marcus helped her produce a studio demo tape but shortly thereafter moved to California. In the meantime, MaHarry had given a friend in Buffalo a tape of the song, who, without her knowledge, had passed it along to a Rochester disk jockey. MaHarry would later recieve a call informing her that she had been selected to perform as one of the top 5 or 150 bands to play in a local "battle of the bands" gig.
MaHarry applied to Crane Music School and auditioned by bringing many of her original songs but was told she would never be a songwriter. After taking a variety of art classes at several colleges and changing her majors many times, MaHarry finally quit school and took a job as an illustrator. After an unfulfilling time there, she concluded she wanted to be playing music again. MaHarry travelled to Los Angeles to record more demos with Dwight Marcus before settling in California in early 1989. She made ends meet by working at an art store and as a waitress, and moved between Hollywood, Burbank, Westwood, Beverly Hills, and Agora Hills. During this period, she recorded demos for "Happy Holidays" and "Headless Horseman", which drew the interest of Aaron Jacoves in A&M's A&R department, who later took interest in her paintings as well. Jacoves purchased two of her paintings, which she recalled was the most money she had ever made at once, and was able to live off of it for some time. Eventually, her debut album emerged with "Don't Stop", "Headless Horseman" and "Happy Holidays" all appearing in their original demo recordings.