Maureen brings her love of music and literature together in the books she has written and edited, The Nature of Music: Beauty, Sound, and Healing, with its companion CDs, and The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology, edited with Helen Houghton. In 2011 she published a book of original poems, Past Lives. When performing music she will often read a poem to illuminate a piece or composer.

She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory with Paul Hersh and with Bernhard Abramowitsch when at UC Berkeley, where she received an M.A. in Comparative Literature. She has also studied with Hans Boepple. Maureen lives in the hills above Los Altos with her husband, winemaker Paul Draper.

In 2001 Maureen began taking portable CD players and music to patients at Stanford Hospital, a palliative program that continues.