Chief Change Officer - #404 Lora Chow: Trading Wall Street for a Steinway — Part Two

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

What does it really mean to follow your heart—without losing your head? Lora Chow shares how her music venture, Virtuoso Fiesta, brings classical music to new audiences while keeping its soul intact. She opens up about funding live concerts, launching her new album Reveries on Ivories, and composing as a form of storytelling. This is more than a career pivot—it’s a case study in blending logic and intuition, technology and art, structure and spirit.Whether you’re chasing harmony or still stuck in the noise, Lora’s story will tune you back in.>>Reveries on Ivories (New Album) by Lora Chow

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human human host. Oshul is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is Nora Chaow, fellow Yale alum, former fund manager, and someone whose journey mirrors mind 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 lies, 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 Sofiesta 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 dreams. 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? 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. 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 unwellness. 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 adventure 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 very world-class musicians, some from the Yale School of Music, but also from all the other prestigious music schools. or the other prestigious music schools. So we curate programs for different events, and we also produce our own concerts and master classes.

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 Balcanto 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. Coming up, we'll continue to have concerts like that and also master classes. For people who would like to support, we have our website virtualsofiester.org.

We have online donations. Our business model basically relies a lot on patronage, sponsorship and ticketing. And of course, like from carpress 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 as an album coming up in April. But I would love to have a bigger audience. Now you just published your new album,

Reveries 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 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 would 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. Film 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. 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 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. 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.

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. 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 foreside, the hide-side, 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. Speaking of balance, let's go back to something we touched 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 a 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, no, it's impossible. You never even start. It's not just mindset.

It's behavior, thought plus action. Jodie Foster, the actor, the director, the producer, and a young grad, said it best in her masterclass. 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 believe 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 few things I do that I think really clarify my

purpose, like meditation, journaling, and just visualizing your success. And that helps a lot. 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. Noro'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 to subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.