Meet the WRITERS

Thomas J Anderson

Music / Lyrics / Book

Patchwork was born from a combination of inspirations.

One was the passion for quilting shared by my wife and her Thursday Night Quilting group. I once teased my wife, calling quilting merely an excuse to drink and gab. That notion changed when I began to research the craft. I was amazed to discover the profound and far-reaching role quilting has played in American history.

Around that same time, I had become interested in the exceptional Italian artist Michelangelo. I was awed by his magnificent work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. He spent more than four years painting more than 300 figures depicting scenes from the Book of Genesis and prophecies of Christ’s coming. Yet, despite such extraordinary accomplishment, he expressed his humility with these words:

“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”

So, more than fifteen years ago, with these thoughts in mind, it was decided to create this American musical. And so Patchwork began.

Stopping only often, mostly for sustenance (including a fair amount of red wine), we have continued to labor over Patchwork and have brought it to where it is today.

How else, in this life, can a man or woman draw closer to God’s shadow than by laboring in the art He has given them?

Thank you for listening.

Jesse Wiener

Music / Arrangements / Orchestrations / Music Supervision

Jesse Wiener is a composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans musical theater, film, television, and the concert stage. With Thomas J. Anderson, he co-wrote the musicals Patchwork and The Dismal Life of Conrad Crum. His music has also been heard in Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, Cartoon Network’s King Star King, the New York Times film series 9 Kisses, and numerous theatrical, film, and recording projects.

Jesse’s career in musical theater has encompassed nearly every side of the orchestra pit. He has performed on Broadway as a guitarist, keyboardist, and singer in SpongeBob SquarePants, Finding Neverland, and Godspell, and has contributed as an arranger, orchestrator, music producer, and music preparer to productions including The Secret Life of Bees, Beetlejuice, Lempicka, The Duck Commander Musical, The Last Smoker in America, and White Noise. He has worked with artists including Adam Guettel, David Yazbek, and Bruce Springsteen, for whom he created violin arrangements for the first performance of “New York City Serenade” in thirty years.

A graduate of Harvard University, Jesse studied composition and orchestration with Elliott Gyger and Nicholas Vines. His choral music has been published by G. Schirmer and recorded by Sono Luminus.