Lora Chow
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
My advice would be to follow your intuition to find your purpose and to really believe in yourself that you can do it because I believe that when you unconsciously also believe in something, it will actually happen. And it takes effort, of course, to change your unconscious belief. And it takes effort to trust yourself enough to make something happen. But just be confident and believe in yourself.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
That's the best piece of advice I've ever got.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
Yeah, I totally agree with you. And there are a few things I do that I think really clarify my purpose, like meditation, journaling, and just visualizing your success. And that helps a lot.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
You're very welcome. It's my pleasure to talk to you. Yeah, very happy to share my experience.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
Yeah, yeah, that's very true. And I feel that I focus more on my heart because my mindset has changed. I focus more on like the spiritual growth actually over the last couple of years. And I realized that a lot of things, if we believe that it will happen, it will actually happen. And I guess starting Virtuoso Fiesta in 2023 was like a dream came true for me and Ruda.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And we realized that dreams can come true and there are a lot of supporting community that can help us realize our dreams. And that's why I think I should follow my heart.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
so your music venture what's the name of it again and what does it mean any special meaning virtual also fiesta virtual also means musicians or artists who are very skilled highly skilled and fiesta means party and festive atmosphere so we want to make music at the highest artistic excellence, at the highest standard, but also at the same time fun and accessible and open to the community.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
What's your core mission there? So my key mission is to promote music that are very high standard, but in innovative ways. For example, through writing new music that are more accessible to the public and that address social issues and inspire changes. Because I feel that music has a very strong power to move people across any cultures,
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
to people with any background and it does soothe the soul and also inspire new thinking and motivates harmony and peace. So our mission is really to promote this power of music to the broader community And in innovative ways because we think that it's time to make changes. We need young people, young forces to make concerts fun instead of being super formal and serious.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
We want people to listen to music just for their enjoyment.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
Definitely. So we produce concerts and events that involve music, including corporate events and also wellness events or any types of organization if they want to have live music performance in their events. Our company would help facilitate that. We have a network of very world-class musicians, some from the Yale School of Music, but also from all the other prestigious music schools.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
So we curate programs for different events, and we also produce our own concerts and masterclasses. We bring world-class people to Hong Kong to share their knowledge on music. Say, for example, last year we brought in a soprano from the Metropolitan Opera. And she was so generous in sharing her knowledge in bel canto singing. She spent 18 years singing leading roles with The Met.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
So there was such a wealth of knowledge that she shared with audience in Hong Kong. And we just brought in last month a professor from Yale. Michael Friedman, who is my favorite professor at Yale who taught music analysis and theory. And he came to Hong Kong to talk about romantic music, how people could listen to romantic music if they are new to it.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And it was really meaningful because I felt like he really helped the audience to connect to the music at a deeper level. So coming up, we'll continue to have concerts like that and also masterclasses. For people who would like to support, we have our website, virtuosofiester.org. We have online donation. Our business model basically relies a lot on patronage, sponsorship, and ticketing.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And of course, like from corporates and other organizations who would like to have live music in their events. And then all this money we just invest in producing great music and great events. And we have videos on YouTube that people can view and comment and share. And of course, I also have my personal website and also music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
I have an album coming up in April that I would love to have a bigger audience.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
Thank you so much. Thank you for your support. Yeah, I'm very happy to receive any types of commission, some scoring for TV or any podcast or any type of media. I'm happy to score music. And it's actually really fulfilling to write music that tells story. And I've been trained in film scoring. I've written opera. And it's all about the storytelling because music brings emotions.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And even without any lyrics or words, you can feel the story of the music. It's a very powerful universal language.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
I guess like any type of artist, The craft and the art really came from within and it's authentic and it's human. But AI can imitate that, and it can be a tool that a creator uses in this process of creation. And I can see a lot of useful applications AI could help. For example, when I compose a new piece of music, sometimes I improvise on the piano and then I transcribe it to music notation.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And then... I write a clean score for musicians to play them. So maybe in this process, AI could be the tool to transcribe this music to clean notation so that musicians can read them. And it can also be used for recording or making demos of my composition.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
Say, for example, if I write a piece for orchestra, but I don't have a live orchestra with me, AI could mimic the sound of the orchestra to create a digital demo audio file for reference or for some kind of soundtrack. So there are applications, but I think to create the highest level of art, we still need that human element, which is our soul, our emotions, our own feelings in the music.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
And I don't think AI could replace that since AI doesn't have real human emotions. But I could see that potentially say for some game music, we could just use AI to make something practical. So it depends on the purpose of the creation. If it's purely for practical purpose, maybe the computer can do it.
Chief Change Officer
#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two
But if it's for emotional expression, for connecting people to inspire people, I still think the human touch is extremely important.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Yeah, I think there were a series of events that built up to this transformation and big change in my career, and I wouldn't say there's one specific trigger. It's more like things just gradually build up until a point that I think everything works in my favor to switch out from finance into music.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Also, during my career in finance, there were times when I thought about maybe I should pursue a Master of Music, maybe I should just devote all my time in music, but then there were things that held me back. So it was like a struggle.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I remember even just a couple of years after graduation, I thought about joining an international singing competition, but I had a traumatic experience at that time that My vocal cord had a polyp and I couldn't sing. I couldn't even talk for an entire month. And I couldn't sing for an entire year. And I had to rest my voice to try different therapies and alternative medicine to recover my voice.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And the vocal cord is very fragile. Even after a year, when I started singing again, it's different from what I had from before. It takes time to build up the muscle again and also to fully recover from that. It actually took many years. So it held me back, but at the same time, because of this injury, I had an urge to compose. It was at that time that I started composing more.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Before that, I actually never had any formal training in composition, but I had good intuition to improvise and to write music. But at that time, I was seriously looking for opportunities to learn composing formally. And I signed up for this summer program in film scoring to learn from a Hollywood composer, Christopher Young, who scored Spider-Man and many other Hollywood movies.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
It's a three-week program in Bulgaria. And I learned so much and I was so fulfilled during that time. I wrote pieces for orchestra. We recorded there. I found my real love, a real passion in music for composing. Ever since then, I came back to Hong Kong, of course, as a composer who is still very young and inexperienced.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
It's hard to find opportunities, but I tried my best to write music for friends. And I started the Yale Alumni Chamber Music Society of Hong Kong. I wrote music for them for the inaugural concert, which was very well received. And because of that, I got an opportunity to write for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
But even with this kind of success, it's still like once a year I get to premiere a work and it's not sustainable. So I was still working in finance on the side. And it was during COVID when I had more time to write music. I was working remotely, all the concert venues were shut, and I had more time to think about my life.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And COVID kind of inspired me to think that life is short, time is very valuable. And there are so much I want to do that I couldn't at that time because concert venues were shut according to the government rules. But I had this strong desire to compose more music and I wrote a lot at home and I started to just upload it to my Instagram and even to YouTube.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Welcome to my show. Hi, Vince. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be on your podcast.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And then I get feedback sometimes from strangers, sometimes from friends who are very supportive and motivated me to write more music. So after the pandemic, I got more opportunities to perform my music and to compose for different people. And even the chairman of my company really appreciated my music and sponsored a new work that I wrote for Hong Kong Phil. And I felt really honored.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And all these supportive voices from high profile people, from people I really respect, drove me to make this decision to devote more time in music. And at that time, there were a few projects that were looming on the side. I have been discussing with Mr. Eddie Tam about writing this fusion opera, combining Cantonese opera with Italian opera.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
That's a really exciting idea to me, and I know I have to spend time to work on that. And also, I just co-founded Virtuoso Fiesta with my violinist friend, Ruda. And it started off pretty well. Actually, to my surprise, a lot of people were quite generous in sponsoring this new music organization.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And they connected us with people relevant to the field and to people who could support us in different aspects, from helping us to make a website to taking professional photography for our events. And all these came together to drive me to really focus more on my passion. And of course, on the side, also, the market has been pretty weak.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And it was a little bit upsetting to see that the markets are driven a lot by political decisions, just headlines. For example, whether the government is positive about reopening or zero COVID policy, like one policy changes so much in the market. And it became actually quite difficult to invest in stocks It became more irrational, I would say.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
The stock price movements are less rational than before. And this is a bit discouraging to me to continue my analytical work in the financial markets. So balancing all these factors, it drove me to transform into a full-time musician from Hedge Fund Manager.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Yeah, yeah, that's very true. And I feel that I focus more on my heart because my mindset has changed. I focus more on like the spiritual growth actually over the last couple of years. And I realized that a lot of things, if we believe that it will happen, it will actually happen. And I guess starting Virtual Soul Fiesta in 2023, was like a dream came true for me and Ruta.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And we realized that dreams can come true. And there are a lot of supporting community that can help us realize our dreams. And that's why I think I should follow my heart.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Sure. I am Laura Chow. I'm from Hong Kong. I'm a composer, a singer, and a multi-instrumentalist. I'm also the co-founder of two music organizations, the Yale Alumni Chamber Music Society of Hong Kong and Virtuoso Fiesta, which I founded with a friend also from Yale, a violinist named Ruda Lee last year in Hong Kong. Actually, in 2023 in Hong Kong, we co-founded Virtuoso Fiesta.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
So I'm very passionate about creating music that inspire positive changes in the world. And my background is that I studied music and economics at Yale College. And after graduation, I pursued a career in finance from being a prop trader in investment bank to a portfolio manager in a hedge fund. And I spent over 10 years analyzing stocks, learning about the financial markets, making returns.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
But always on the side, I've been doing music as a performer, as a composer, and as an administrator and trying to make changes in the music scene in Hong Kong to hopefully allocate more resources in the music scene and to promote the transformative power of music.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Sure. I was always very passionate about music. I started the piano at four and learned different instruments, played in orchestra, sang in choirs, and I always wanted to be a musician, but I always also got the impression that it's impossible to be a musician in Hong Kong.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
where I was born and where it's a financial hub it's very unrealistic and it's very difficult to make a living and I'm not from a wealthy family so I do have to be practical and of course there are also pressure from my traditional parents just giving me the idea that it's very important to have a stable income and it's much easier to be a professional and to have a high standard of living.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And being a musician is very challenging and competitive, tough life. With all these impressions in my mind, and I was doing quite well in my academic study, I was pretty good at math. My mom majored in math and she actually influenced me a lot. So at first, when I was around 17, thinking about college, I thought about majoring in math.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And I even applied to the University of Cambridge to major in math and got an offer from them. Almost went there, but at the same time, I applied to the US colleges because I know about the liberal arts education and the possibility to do a double major. So my goal is to do music with something practical.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
At first I was thinking music and math because I was just pretty good at math and did the math Olympiad and all those in high school. And then I regretted for applying to math major in the UK because my heart still really leans towards music. But I'm very grateful that Yale offered this great liberal arts program and I could decide on my major after I got in, which is awesome.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I think it's very important to try different things and find out what we really love. And because Yale offers this opportunity, in freshman year I took some math courses and I discovered that I'm not really that into math. And I prefer economics, which is way more applicable to the real world. And that's why I chose economics as one of my majors. And then for music, it's always my passion.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
love and passion so I always wanted to study music and of course Yale is the best Ivy League school with professional music school. So that's why I applied early action to Yale and I'm very grateful I got in and could do both economics and music. I feel like I have a safety net in case music does not work out and at the same time I can explore different interests.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I was actually pretty interested in economics as well because It gives me a great perspective about the real-life experience, about how different companies run, how a lot of industries work in the world. So I'm very glad I did both.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I had really great experience with music at Yale. I sang in the professional chamber choir Yale School of Cantorum and I sang in a lot of the opera there. I was cast as one of the leading role in an Italian opera. And these experiences are really wonderful and my dreams came true. But when I was in my junior year, I got a lot of pressure from my peers.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
Everyone who majored in economics were applying for internships at investment banks. And of course, my parents were also encouraging that, like many other Ivy League parents. especially from Asia, also encouraged that. And there was a good reputation from investment banks about how they take in the smart kids and gave amazing training to them and have a wonderful future ahead.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
So I was part of that group. I just followed the crowd to apply online, all these internships with different banks. I did the interviews. I remember Morgan Stanley even flew me to Hong Kong for just one day to do the interview and then back to the US the next day. And it really impressed me how much they invested in college students.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And also it widened my horizon during the interviews about how trading floor works, how financial markets are so exciting. So I thought to myself, let's try the internship. It doesn't hurt. I spent my sophomore summer in Italy singing opera. So junior year, I decided that I would come back to Hong Kong to do an internship with Morgan Stanley. And it went really well.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I won the trading game during the internship and I got a full-time offer at the bank, which was pretty lucrative. And I missed Hong Kong, too. It's my hometown. My family is here and they wanted me to come back as well. And Hong Kong is a financial hub. There's no full time job for opera singer.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
At that point, I think my options were pretty much like applying for a master's degree in singing in the US or come back to Hong Kong to work in this investment bank. And I chose the later because of my curiosity about how the financial markets work. And I guess there were also a lot of influences as I grew up in this financial hub.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
I hear from my family discussing stocks in family gatherings and the financial news always talk about stocks on the TV. So I was curious about how all these things work. And I wanted to make money too, just to be realistic. I aspire to have a home with a grand piano where I can host concerts. So it seems like this is the path where I can achieve this dream.
Chief Change Officer
#403 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part One
And of course, even when I was working on the site, I continued to take singing lessons, I continued to perform in concerts, and I was pretty ambitious that I wanted to do both, having a great job while still doing things in music. So that's how I decided to come back to Hong Kong for the job.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
My advice would be to follow your intuition to find your purpose and to really believe in yourself that you can do it. Because I believe that when you unconsciously also believe in something, it will actually happen. And it takes effort, of course, to change your unconscious belief And it takes effort to trust yourself enough to make something happen.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
But just be confident and believe in yourself. That's the best piece of advice I've ever got.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Yeah, I totally agree with you. And there are a few things I do that I think really clarify my purpose, like meditation, journaling, and just visualizing your success. And that helps a lot.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
You're very welcome. It's my pleasure to talk to you. Yeah, very happy to share my experience.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Yeah, yeah, that's very true. And I feel that I focus more on my heart because my mindset has changed. I focus more on like the spiritual growth actually over the last couple of years. And I realized that a lot of things, if we believe that it will happen, it will actually happen. And I guess starting Virtuoso Fiesta in 2023 was like a dream came true for me and Ruda.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And we realized that dreams can come true. And there are a lot of supporting community that can help us realize our dreams. And that's why I think I should follow my heart.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Virtuoso Fiesta. Virtuoso means musicians or artists who are very skilled, highly skilled. And fiesta means party and festive atmosphere. So we want to make music at the highest artistic excellence, at the highest standard, but also at the same time fun and accessible and open to the community. Was your core mission there?
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
So my key mission is to promote music that are very high standard, but in innovative ways. For example, through writing new music that are more accessible to the public and that address social issues and inspire changes. Because I feel that music has a very strong power to move people across any culture's
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
to people with any background and it does soothe the soul and also inspire new thinking and motivates harmony and peace. So our mission is really to promote this power of music to the broader community And in innovative ways because we think that it's time to make changes. We need young people, young forces to make concerts fun instead of being super formal and serious.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
We want people to listen to music just for their enjoyment.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Definitely. So we produce concerts and events that involve music, including corporate events and also wellness events or any types of organization if they want to have live music performance in their events. Our company would help facilitate that. We have a network of very world-class musicians, some from the Yale School of Music, but also from all the other prestigious music schools.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
So we curate programs for different events, and we also produce our own concerts and masterclasses. We bring world-class people to Hong Kong to share their knowledge on music. Say, for example, last year we brought in a soprano from the Metropolitan Opera. And she was so generous in sharing her knowledge in bel canto singing. She spent 18 years singing leading roles with The Met.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
So there was such a wealth of knowledge that she shared with audience in Hong Kong. And we just brought in last month a professor from Yale. Michael Friedman, who is my favorite professor at Yale who taught music analysis and theory. And he came to Hong Kong to talk about romantic music, how people could listen to romantic music if they are new to it.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And it was really meaningful because I felt like he really helped the audience to connect to the music at a deeper level. So coming up, we'll continue to have concerts like that and also masterclasses. For people who would like to support, we have our website, virtuosofiester.org. We have online donation. Our business model basically relies a lot on patronage, sponsorship and ticketing.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And of course, like from corporates and other organizations who would like to have live music in their events. And then all this money we just invest in producing great music and great events. And we have videos on YouTube that people can view and comment and share. And of course, I also have my personal website and also music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
I have an album coming up in April that I would love to have a bigger audience.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Thank you so much. Thank you for your support. Yeah, I'm very happy to receive any types of commission, some scoring for TV or any podcast or any type of media. I'm happy to score music. And it's actually really fulfilling to write music that tells story. And I've been trained in film scoring. I've written opera. And it's all about the storytelling because music brings emotions.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And even without any lyrics or words, you can feel the story of the music. It's a very powerful universal language.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
I guess like any type of artist, the craft and the art really came from within and it's authentic and it's human. But AI can imitate that, and it can be a tool that a creator uses in this process of creation. And I can see a lot of useful applications AI could help. For example, when I compose a new piece of music, sometimes I improvise on the piano and then I transcribe it to music notation.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And then... I write a clean score for musicians to play them. So maybe in this process, AI could be the tool to transcribe this music to clean notation so that musicians can read them. And it can also be used for recording or making demos of my composition.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
Say, for example, if I write a piece for orchestra, but I don't have a live orchestra with me, AI could mimic the sound of the orchestra to create a digital demo audio file for reference or for some kind of soundtrack. So there are applications, but I think to create the highest level of art, we still need that human element, which is our soul, our emotions, our own feelings in the music.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
And I don't think AI could replace that since AI doesn't have real human emotions. But I could see that potentially say for some game music, we could just use AI to make something practical. So it depends on the purpose of the creation. If it's purely for practical purpose, maybe the computer can do it.
Chief Change Officer
#290 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part Two
But if it's for emotional expression, for connecting people to inspire people, I still think the human touch is extremely important.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Yeah, I think there were a series of events that built up to this transformation and big change in my career. And I wouldn't say there's one specific trigger. It's more like things just gradually built up until a point that I think everything works in my favor to switch out from finance into music.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Also, during my career in finance, there were times when I thought about maybe I should pursue a Master of Music, maybe I should just devote all my time in music, but then there were things that held me back. So it was like a struggle.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
I remember even just a couple of years after graduation, I thought about joining an international singing competition, but I had a traumatic experience at that time that My vocal cord had a polyp and I couldn't sing. I couldn't even talk for an entire month. And I couldn't sing for an entire year. And I had to rest my voice to try different therapies and alternative medicine to recover my voice.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And the vocal cord is very fragile. Even after a year, when I started singing again, it's different from what I had from before. It takes time to build up the muscle again and also to fully recover from that. It actually took many years. So it held me back, but at the same time, because of this injury, I had an urge to compose. It was at that time that I started composing more.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Before that, I actually never had any formal training in composition, but I had good intuition to improvise and to write music. But at that time, I was seriously looking for opportunities to learn composing formally. And I signed up for this summer program in film scoring to learn from a Hollywood composer, Christopher Young, who scored Spider-Man and many other Hollywood movies.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
It's a three-week program in Bulgaria. And I learned so much and I was so fulfilled during that time. I wrote pieces for Augustra. We recorded there. I... found my real love, a real passion in music for composing. Ever since then, I came back to Hong Kong, of course, as a composer who is still very young and inexperienced.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
It's hard to find opportunities, but I tried my best to write music for friends. And I started the Yale Alumni Chamber Music Society of Hong Kong. I wrote music for them for the inaugural concert, which was very well received. And because of that, I got an opportunity to write for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
But even with this kind of success, it's still like once a year I get to premiere a work and it's not sustainable. So I was still working in finance on the side. And it was during COVID when I had more time to write music. I was working remotely. All the concert venues were shut. And I had more time to think about my life. And COVID kind of inspired me to think that life is short.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Nora, welcome to Chief Change Officer. Welcome to my show. Hi, Vince. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be on your podcast.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Time is very valuable. And there are so much I want to do that I couldn't at that time because concert venues were shut according to the government rules. But I had this strong desire to compose more music and I wrote a lot at home and I started to just upload it to my Instagram and even to YouTube.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And then I get feedback sometimes from strangers, sometimes from friends who are very supportive and motivated me to write more music. So after the pandemic, I got more opportunities to perform my music and to compose for different people. And even the chairman of my company really appreciated my music and sponsored a new work that I wrote for Hong Kong Phil. And I felt really honored.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And all these supportive voices from high profile people, from people I really respect, drove me to make this decision to devote more time in music. And at that time, there were a few projects that were looming on the side. I have been discussing with Mr. Eddie Tam about writing this fusion opera, combining Cantonese opera with Italian opera.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
That's a really exciting idea to me, and I know I have to spend time to work on that. And also, I just co-founded Virtuoso Fiesta with my violinist friend, Ruda. And it started off pretty well. Actually, to my surprise, a lot of people were quite generous in sponsoring this new music organization.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And they connected us with people relevant to the field and to people who could support us in different aspects from helping us to make a website to taking professional photography for our events. And all these came together to drive me to really focus more on my passion. And of course, on the side, also, the market has been pretty weak.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And it was a little bit upsetting to see that the markets are driven a lot by political decisions, just headlines. For example, whether the government is positive about reopening or zero COVID policy, like one policy changes so much in the market. And it became actually quite difficult to invest in stocks It became more irrational, I would say.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
The stock price movements are less rational than before. And this is a bit discouraging to me to continue my analytical work in the financial markets. So balancing all these factors, it drove me to transform into a full-time musician from Hedge Fund Manager.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Yeah, yeah, that's very true. And I feel that I focus more on my heart because my mindset has changed. I focus more on like the spiritual growth, actually, over the last couple of years. And I realized that a lot of things, if we believe that it will happen, it will actually happen. And I guess starting Virtuoso Fiesta in 2023 was like a dream came true for me and Ruda.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And we realized that dreams can come true. And there are a lot of supporting community that can help us realize our dreams. And that's why I think I should follow my heart.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Sure. I am Laura Chow. I'm from Hong Kong. I'm a composer, a singer, and a multi-instrumentalist. I'm also the co-founder of two music organizations, the Yale Alumni Chamber Music Society of Hong Kong and Virtuoso Fiesta, which I founded with a friend also from Yale, a violinist named Ruda Lee last year in Hong Kong. Actually, in 2023 in Hong Kong, we co-founded Virtuoso Fiesta.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
So I'm very passionate about creating music that inspire positive changes in the world. And my background is that I studied music and economics at Yale College. And after graduation, I pursued a career in finance from being a prop trader in investment bank to a portfolio manager in a hedge fund. And I spent over 10 years analyzing stocks, learning about the financial markets. making returns.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
But always on the side, I've been doing music as a performer, as a composer, and as an administrator and trying to make changes in the music scene in Hong Kong to hopefully allocate more resources in the music scene and to promote the transformative power of music.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Sure. I was always very passionate about music. I started the piano at four and learned different instruments, played in orchestra, sang in choirs. And I always wanted to be a musician, but I always also got the impression that it's impossible to be a musician in Hong Kong.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
where I was born and where it's a financial hub it's very unrealistic and it's very difficult to make a living and I'm not from a wealthy family so I do have to be practical and of course there are also pressure from my traditional parents just giving me the idea that it's very important to have a stable income and it's much easier to be a professional and to have a high standard of living.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And being a musician is very challenging and competitive, tough life. With all these impressions in my mind, and I was doing quite well in my academic study, I was pretty good at math. My mom majored in math and she actually influenced me a lot. So at first, when I was around 17, thinking about college, I thought about majoring in math.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And I even applied to the University of Cambridge to major in math and got an offer from them. Almost went there, but at the same time, I applied to the U.S. colleges because I know about the liberal arts education and the possibility to do a double major. So my goal is to do music with something practical.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
At first I was thinking music and math because I was just pretty good at math and did the math Olympiad and all those in high school. And then I regretted for applying to math major in the UK because my heart still really leans towards music. But I'm very grateful that Yale offered this great liberal arts program and I could decide on my major after I got in, which is awesome.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
I think it's very important to try different things and find out what we really love. And because Yale offers this opportunity in freshman year, I took some math courses and I discovered that I'm not really that into math. And I prefer economics, which is way more applicable to the real world. And that's why I chose economics as one of my majors.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And then for music, it's always my love and passion. So I always wanted to study music. And of course, Yale is the best Ivy League school with professional music school. So that's why I applied early action to Yale and I'm very grateful I got in and could do both economics and music.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
I feel like I have a safety net in case music does not work out and at the same time I can explore different interests. I was actually pretty interested in economics as well because It gives me a great perspective about the real-life experience, about how different companies run, how a lot of industries work in the world. So I'm very glad I did both.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Yeah, it was a tough choice. I had really great experience. With music at Yale, I sang in the professional chamber choir, Yale School of Cantorum, and I sang in a lot of the opera there. I was cast as one of the leading role in an Italian opera. And these experiences are really wonderful, and my dreams came true. But when I was in my junior year, I got a lot of pressure from my peers.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
Everyone who majored in economics were applying for internships at investment banks. And of course, my parents were also encouraging that, like many other Ivy League parents. especially from Asia, also encouraged that. And there was a good reputation from investment banks about how they take in the smart kids and gave amazing training to them and have a wonderful future ahead.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
So I was part of that group. I just followed the crowd to apply online, all these internships with different banks. I did the interviews. I remember Morgan Stanley even flew me to Hong Kong for just one day to do the interview and then back to the US the next day. And it really impressed me how much they invested in college students.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And also it widened my horizon during the interviews about how trading flow works, how financial markets are so exciting. So I thought to myself, let's try the internship. It doesn't hurt. I spent my sophomore summer in Italy singing opera. So junior year, I decided that I would come back to Hong Kong to do an internship with Morgan Stanley. And it went really well.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
I won the trading game during the internship and I got a full-time offer at the bank, which was pretty lucrative. And I missed Hong Kong, too. It's my hometown. My family is here and they wanted me to come back as well. And Hong Kong is a financial hub. There's no full time job for opera singer.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
At that point, I think my options were pretty much like applying for a master's degree in singing in the US or come back to Hong Kong to work in this investment bank. And I chose the later because of my curiosity about how the financial markets work. And I guess there were also a lot of influences as I grew up in this financial hub.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
I hear from my family discussing stocks in family gatherings and the financial news always talk about stocks on the TV. So I was curious about how all these things work. And I wanted to make money too, just to be realistic. I aspire to have a home with a grand piano where I can host concerts. So it seems like this is the path where I can achieve this dream.
Chief Change Officer
#289 Lora Chow: Reveries from the Trading Floor to the Concert Hall — Part One
And of course, even when I was working on the side, I continued to take singing lessons. I continued to perform in concerts. And I was pretty ambitious that I wanted to do both, having a great job while still doing things in music. So that's how I decided to come back to Hong Kong for the job.