The first organist nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album received a critical backlash early in his career for his unconventional style—one reviewer wrote that his Bach-centric programme in Dallas, Texas, several years ago was "grotesque". Looking back, he admits that he learned to live with such negativity.

"I didn't ever get over it, I just got used to it," he explained ahead of his latest visit to the HKAF, where he willstage two performances: one on the same programme as pianist Chiyan Wong and the HK Phil, and another providing a live soundtrack to the Chinese silent movie Sports Queen. "As I got older and the classical music landscape changed after Covid, such things simply became less important."

Carpenter last appeared at the Festival in 2023 when he provided live organ soundtracks to two classics of silent cinema—Buster Keaton's The General (1926) and Metropolis (1927) —and he's excited to be working with a Chinese film this time.  "The methodology is the same as in any other film; the music must support the characters and their action and always be subordinate to their needs. If anything, the absence of Western text is a relief when compared to the often clichéd, pedantic role of text cards in many early Hollywood films."