'Conductor Thomas Beecham once said that only if your desire to become a musician is so strong that you would rather put your head in the oven than do anything else should you even consider pursuing a musical career,' says Sharon Choa, director of music at Britain's University of East Anglia. 'That desire came to me when I was 14.'
At the time, Choa was a student at Hong Kong's St Paul's Co-educational College. 'I had always been a science student but I took violin lessons from the music master at Diocesan Boys School. Later, ironically, I led the St Paul's Co-ed strings to defeat the DBS team at school competitions, two years in a row.
'When I went to London for university, I took up human biology as my major but that only lasted two weeks. I had an audition with Sidney Griller, the guru of string quartets at the Royal Academy of Music, and got accepted. That instantly changed my life.'
Choa's father, George - chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association in the 1970s - was not upset with his daughter's decision, even though it drew her away from the family's medical tradition.
'Actually, my father discouraged me from a medical career because of the tough work he was all too familiar with. He didn't know it's even tougher to be a musician.'
Armed with a PhD in music from King's College, London, Choa stayed in Britain, a country she says she feels comfortable in.