HONG KONG, October 25, 2014 — Tisa Ho, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Art Festival, led a morning conversation with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of the world's greatest opera singers in modern times. This event provided a platform for people who want to succeed in life to absorb the experience and journey of Kiri and the audience were certainly inspired by her story.

From being an adopted little girl to becoming the world's most famous opera singer, Kanawa was even invited by Prince Charles to perform in his royal wedding. This road has not been a smooth one because of her innate talent of singing. During the discussion, Kiri mentioned numerous times how hard she practiced and prepared herself for performances. For instance when she has to sing in a different language, she will get the coach translate for her and check the dictionary, so that she understand the whole song, she mentioned “I will literally hand write all my scores in translations, I will never accept only one of two words will be fine.” According to Kiri, the key aspects leading to her success were the inspiration from her singing teacher Sister Mary Leo and all the hard work she put into her career.

Video: Watch the complete program (1 hr., 11 min.)