Biography

Born in Hong Kong, Lora Chow is an award-winning composer and coloratura soprano graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a double major in Music and Economics. She later studied composition with Hollywood composers Patrick Kirst, Lawrence Shragge and Christopher Young. Lora has created numerous piano improvisations and has composed a variety of solo piano, vocal, chamber and orchestral music. Her music has been premiered by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, Sofia Sinfonietta, Budapest Art Orchestra and many renowned musicians. Her scores are published by the Universal Edition.

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Lora has won many awards, such as the Chigiana Film Scoring Award for Best Storytelling, the CASH Music Fund, the Cole Porter Fellowship in Music and Theater, the Louis Sudler Creative and Performing Arts Award, the Curtis Recital Plate, the Katie Lees Award for Musicianship, and the Anita Hewitt-Jones Composition Prize.

As the youngest singer in Yale Schola Cantorum, Lora toured with world-renowned conductors Masaaki Suzuki and Simon Carrington in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. She has also performed various roles in operas, including Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Zelatrice in Suor Angelica at Operafestival di Roma, Second Lady in The Magic Flute at the Bethesda Summer Music Festival, Adina (cover) in L'elisir d'amore in Varna State Opera, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri and Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw with the Opera Theatre of Yale College, and Asdrubale in Scipione Affricano and Speranza in L’Orfeo with the Yale Baroque Opera Project. She has sung in masterclasses by Maestro Helmuth Rilling, soprano Sumi Jo, Camilla Tilling, Anna Shafajinskaia and Olga Makarina.

Lora sings with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra as  Soprano Fellow; Cantabile, a professional ensemble directed by Philip Chu, and works as a freelance musician. Lora plays multiple instruments, including piano, harp, organ, trumpet and violin. She also serves as the Vice-Chairwoman of SingFest, the Co-Founder of the Yale Alumni Chamber Music Society of Hong Kong, and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Virtuoso Fiesta. She is a member of the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild.