Lora Chow didn’t abandon ambition—she just rewrote its score. In this episode, we trace her unusual arc from elite finance to classical composition. She opens up about choosing Yale over Cambridge, chasing Wall Street dreams, and what it really took to reclaim her voice—literally. This isn’t a story about dropping out or burning out. It’s about tuning into the parts of yourself that never stopped playing.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Choosing Yale Over Cambridge Wasn’t Just About Prestige“My heart wanted music. But my mom majored in math—and Hong Kong wanted finance.”Lora opens up about the early tension between cultural expectation and personal calling.Fitting Into the Ivy League Mold—Until It Didn’t“Everyone was applying to Morgan Stanley. I followed the crowd—and got the job.”At Yale, ambition and conformity collided. She got the offer, but the itch for music never left.A Grand Piano, a Grand Salary—But Something Felt Off“I loved music. But I also wanted a home with a grand piano.”Trading dreams for stability was logical—but it came with a cost.Silence Sparked the Return to Sound“I lost my voice for a year. That’s when I started composing.”An unexpected health detour brought her back to the keyboard.Bulgaria, Opera, and a Creative Awakening“A summer program opened a door I hadn’t dared to knock on before.”A trip abroad flipped the script—and planted the seed for Reveries on Ivories._______________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Lora Chow (YouTube Channel) --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Lora Chow and what is her background?
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.
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.
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.
When you first shared your story with me, there were a lot of things I could relate to. Not the singing or composing part. I'm definitely not a trained musician. I did learn piano as a kid, and I enjoy singing. I even did some vocal training later on, but that was more for public speaking. But like you, I was born and raised in Hong Kong.
I took part in all those extracurricular activities growing up, including music. Then, like many of us, you went on to a great school. And at Yale, you chose to major in both music and economics. Can you take us back to that moment? You were around 18, starting college. What were you thinking back then when you chose those two majors? Why not just music or just economics?
What made you want to combine the two?
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.
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.
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Chapter 2: What influenced Lora Chow’s choice of majors in college?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, Yale. This episode might feel a little Yale-biased since we're both alums, but it is really known for its liberal arts education. It gives us that freedom to explore, to try different things, and figure out what turns us on. No one at Yale ever said, you have to choose either the arts or the sciences. You are someone who's strong in both music and economics. That's rare.
So truly, I applaud you for that. Now, I know you started learning music at a young age, and that love for music stayed with you. But I also see how studying economics gave you another toolkit, especially helpful when thinking about career planning, job options, and maybe even the practical side of life. That's probably why you ended up in banking and hedge funds. You knew how to hedge your risk.
But your heart, it kept pointing you back to music. Still, four years later, as a graduating student, you had to make a decision. Stay in the US, go back to Hong Kong, maybe take part in campus recruiting. So what was your thinking back then? you chose to go into finance and what led you to pick the more realistic path at that moment, instead of diving straight into your passion,
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Chapter 3: Why did Lora Chow choose a career in finance over music?
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.
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.
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.
The site on Bonnet, the whole package, it was all very attractive. And back then, investment banks really knew how to treat young talent. Whether you were fresh out of undergrad or coming from an MBA, they invested seriously and extensively in people, including time, training, and yes, money. And let's be real, money matters.
Chapter 4: How did Lora’s experiences at Yale shape her career path?
It pays the bills, pays off your student loans, gives you security, and let you dream a little. Maybe even a house with a grand piano, like you said. So of course, when a place like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs makes you an offer, who would say no? I also call this the Hong Kong factor. I grew up in Hong Kong too. And everyone here, literally everyone, is talking about the financial markets.
Stocks, real estate, investment, and even housewives are day trading. That's just the environment we were raised in. So naturally, there's also this peer pressure. You see your classmate joining top banks, getting promoted, earning six, seven or eight figures. That stuff gets into your head. So it makes total sense that you followed the practical path and you did well.
You build a successful finance career over 10 years. But then what changed? What happened around 2020, 2021? that made you stop and finally listen to your heart? For the last 10, 20, even 30 years, it sounds like your head was in charge. What triggered you to finally make that ambitious change?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Chapter 5: What led Lora to return to music after a successful finance career?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Lora face in pursuing her passions?
Chapter 7: How did societal expectations impact Lora's career choices?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The site on Bonnet, the whole package, it was all very attractive. And back then, investment banks really knew how to treat young talent. Whether you were fresh out of undergrad or coming from an MBA, they invested seriously and extensively in people, including time, training, and yes, money. And let's be real, money matters.
It pays the bills, pays off your student loans, gives you security, and let you dream a little. Maybe even a house with a grand piano, like you said. So of course, when a place like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs makes you an offer, who would say no? I also call this the Hong Kong factor. I grew up in Hong Kong too. And everyone here, literally everyone, is talking about the financial markets.
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