#404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two

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Hi everyone, welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer.

I'm Vince Chen,

your ambitious human host.

Our show

is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world.

Today's guest is Nora Chow,

fellow Yale alum, former fund manager, and someone whose journey mirrors mine in more ways than one.

We are both from Hong Kong, shaped by the same family and societal expectations to chase money, business, and brand names.

We followed the expected path, elite schools, big careers, but eventually stepped away from the weight of titles, status, and what we were supposed to want.

In this two-part series, Nora shares how she returned to music, launched her new album, Referees on Ivories,

and built a life that sounds like her, not someone else's script.

From hedge funds to harmonies, this is a story about dropping the labels and choosing the nooks that matter.

Let's get into it.

The way I see it.

For a period of time, your head led the way.

You let your heart stay in the background, not ignored, but quieter,

still

beating, still alive.

You didn't silence it, but you asked it to wait while you focused on logic, on what made sense at the time.

And then, as life changed, maybe your heart changed too,

and you decided it was the time to let it lead a little more,

to let it take center stage.

You are still the same Nora with sharp analytical skills.

Skills you developed in finance.

Skills you will still need as you undertake new endeavors.

You are just choosing to use those skills differently now to support something more personal, more meaningful.

So while you've shifted into using your artistic side to help transform lives,

I see it as you finally giving your heart the spotlight, but your head is still right there backing it up

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 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 so fiesta in 2023

was like a dream came true for me and Ruda.

And we realized that dreams can come true and

there are a lot of supporting community that can help us realize our dream.

And that's why I think I should follow my heart.

So your music venture.

What's the name of it again?

And what does it mean?

Any special meaning?

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.

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 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.

We want people to

listen to music

just for their enjoyment.

Yeah,

I must say the world we live in now feels broken, fragmented, and honestly, depressed.

That's why we're facing this huge crisis of loneliness and mental

And music, when I say music, I don't just mean classical.

It could be pop, jazz, or whatever, speaks to someone.

It's such a powerful force to help us heal.

Even in small ways, it can stabilize our emotions, bring us back to ourselves.

Hopefully.

Let's go back to your music venture for a moment.

You got a mission, but what about the actions?

You compose?

You perform?

What else are you doing as part of this work?

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 of very world-class musicians, some from the Yale School of Music, but also from all the other prestigious music schools.

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 was so generous in sharing her knowledge in Belcanto singing.

She spent 18 years singing leading roles with the Met.

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.

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, virtualsofiesta.org.

We have online donation.

Our business model basically rely a lot on patronage, sponsorship, and ticketing.

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.

I have an album coming up in April that I would love to have a bigger audience.

Now,

you just published your new album,

Referees on Ivories,

which to me is like publishing a book.

I just listened to it.

I really like it.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if one day, when my show show gets bigger, I come to you and say,

Nora, I want to commission you to write all the background music for the show.

The intro, the outro, the whole soundtrack.

The credit will go to you, of course, and that will make it a Yale creation.

That's the day I'm really hoping for.

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.

Even without any lyrics or words, you can feel the story of the music.

It's a very powerful universal language.

You talk about music creation, composing, storytelling, and now we're entering a world that's increasingly AI driven.

We already have platforms where people can license soundtracks instantly.

More people will use tech tools to generate music on their own.

You are a human creator.

You are classically trained.

And not just trained, but over time, you've developed real skill, real craftsmanship.

So I'm curious, how do you see AI stepping into this space?

Do you see it as competition?

Or do you see it as a push to step up your own game and differentiate yourself as a music creator?

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 use in this process of creation.

And I can see a lot of useful applications AI could help.

For example, when I compose new piece of music, sometimes I improvise on the piano and then I transcribe it to music notation.

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.

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.

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.

But if it's for emotional expression, for

connecting people

to inspire people,

I still think the human touch is extremely important.

Yes, it's really about blending artificial and human intelligence.

For me, this show is all about human intelligence.

It's about life experience, real experience, human experience.

The stories, the insight, the foresight, the hindsight, the heart, none of that can be fully replicated by AI.

I'm not even worried about tools that can replicate my voice or my guest's voice.

Because at the end of the day, the way I ask questions is unique.

The stories you bring are unique.

You are unique.

I am unique.

The connection between you and me is also unique.

This conversation is human-made.

Sure,

I use AI to check grammar and sentence structure in the show notes.

or tighten up phrasing, but no tool can replace me as the host.

And no tool can replace you as the guest.

It's all about balance between the human and the technology.

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Speaking of balance, let's go back to something we touched on on earlier.

The balance between head and heart.

We are trained with logic,

math, science, economics.

But we also carry within us love, music, and the heart.

Now you've chosen to follow your heart.

But there are people out there who might be where you once were.

Maybe they're younger.

Maybe they've fulfilled the expectations placed on them.

Played the game well, but don't feel fulfilled.

They're still struggling between head and heart.

So from where you are now, what would you say to someone who's feeling stuck?

Someone trying to decide whether to follow their heart or their head.

Just how to balance the two.

I feel like you are the perfect person to offer some advice here 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 efforts of course

to change your unconscious belief.

And it takes efforts to trust yourself enough to make something happen.

But just

be confident and believe in yourself.

That's the best piece of advice I've ever got.

Some might say, this sounds philosophical.

But really, it's science.

When you believe something is possible, your actions start to align with that belief.

You try, you keep trying, you keep adjusting, you keep moving forward.

But if you tell yourself, nope, it is impossible,

you never even start.

It is not just mindset, it is behavior, thought plus action.

Jodie Foster,

the actor, the director, the producer, and Yelgrit,

said it best in her masterclass.

All you need to make a movie is pen, paper, and confidence.

Not fancy tools, just the basics and belief in yourself.

That really stuck with me.

And honestly, that's what I've lived through too.

Yeah, I totally agree with you.

And there are a 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.

Nora, thank you very much for your time tonight.

While we live in the same city, we do this virtually.

And I really appreciate you take time out of your busy schedule to share so much with me, with us.

thank you very much

you're very welcome it's my pleasure to talk to you yeah very happy to share my experience

and that's the end for this series

nora's story reminds us that mastery isn't always loud

And sometimes the most powerful changes begin in stillness.

If you've been waiting for permission to go back to something you love,

maybe

this was it.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, Check out our website and follow me on social media.

I'm Vin Chen, your ambitious human host.

Until next time, take care.