With inspiration from poetry and from artwork by the muralist Jayoto, Thai composer Chawin Temsittichok crafts a musical streetscape collage of Bangkok, through which hear Madame Sidney Pratten’s lament emerge from a collection of found sounds.

In this Patchwork Suite variation, pianist and composer Jane Wong explores darker undercurrents of the human psyche by translating the palette of Mark Rothko’s “Black on Maroon” into swaths of sweeping episodes for cello and piano.

In this continuation of Episode 6, we take a brief intermission from our Season 2 musical variations and turn instead to a firsthand account of mural-making, according to Portland artists Alex Chiu and Jeremy Nichols. Learn more about their stories and artwork at https://www.artbyalexchiu.com/ and at https://www.plasticbirdie.com/

Breathe in the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest through this song without words, first sketched in 2016 as a cradle song by Mary Claire Murphy, and now fleshed out with inspiration from the Portland mural by Alex Chiu and Jeremy Nichols.

Piano prodigy and social media sensation BLKBOK reconnects with WGTE to narrate the creative process behind his Patchwork Suite variation, which invites us to investigate “who’s behind the white paint.”

In his Jazz-informed variation on the “Episode of Life” by Madame Sidney Pratten, Kyle Brooks looks to a Chicagoland mural of American entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., revealing to us a juxtaposition of Davis’ inner world and public persona.

Jay Welenc and his students at Toledo School for the Arts return for the second season of The Patchwork Suite, bringing us a variation that’s shaped by family tree murals and the natural arc of human development.

This is an episode for the wanderlusting spirit, as composer Frederic Glesser approaches the end of the world with his set of three penguin-inspired variations on the “Episode of Life” by Madame Sidney Pratten.

Welcome to The Patchwork Suite Season 2, a theme and variations project based on “An Episode of Life” by Madame Sidney Pratten (1821-1895). Here, Mary Claire Murphy reveals the scope of this mural-inspired season, introduces Madame Sidney Pratten, and acquaints us with the lamenting classical guitar theme that will reappear under various guises throughout the series.

After a season filled with musical variety, what are some of the common threads in the patchwork we’ve assembled? In this episode, Mary Claire Murphy shares a collage of memorable insights from the participating composers, illuminating human connection through art.