I write music from the bottom of my heart. I love the instruments that are rich in overtones, creating, by themselves, without digital technologies, a beautiful unusual sound. Therefore, I chose the organ and the harpsichord as my instruments for performing. For similar reasons, I like to create new music for these instruments, as well as for the gusli (Russian harp), and for the carillon.

In my life, I had two amazing experiences with carillons in Russia: this is the St. Petersburg carillon of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 2014 (then it was a solo piece Lyric Romance), and later, in 2019, I wrote a concerto for a carillon with a symphony orchestra, for a unique mobile carillon of Belgorod. Its premiere took place on June 11, 2019, at the closing concert of the Second International Carillon Music Festival Belgorodsky Zvon, the only mobile carillon music festival in the world. Both of these creative experiences, without exaggeration, had a great impact on my life as a composer. Therefore, having decided to write for the carillon again, and to take part in the competition of composers, I set to work with great pleasure and creative excitement.

I am very interested in the image of a person who hears the festive chime of the bells of the cathedral, because I myself often turn out to be such a person. And I know for myself that the festive ringing has a special effect on the psyche and the structure of thoughts and souls. Therefore, in a certain sense, the hero of the play is the person who hears this chime outside the temple, and good changes occur in his soul from this chime.

I hope that Festive Chime near the Cathedral will bring joy to the performers and listeners of the programs of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America!

—Elizaveta Panchenko