Fine-tuning his musical prospects

Under Zhao's guidance, the band also wrote another song, I Am You, which they also performed during the competition. "It is like a letter from the band members to their parents. It's also what I want to say to parents, to my parents in particular. It talks about worrying parents and their children, who are rebellious in the eyes of the parents. The song is about the communication between children and their parents," says Zhao.

"Like any other children learning to play instruments, such as piano and violin, they need to work hard on practicing. Doing rehearsals enables them to listen to one another, just like chamber musicians. They grow up and continue their school work while enjoying music," he adds.

Another group that stood out among the competitors, and which was made a top 10 finalist during the competition, was a band of Qiang and Tibetan ethnic performers from Maoxian county, Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. The name of the band, Esinaba, means "azalea flower" in the Qiang language.

The band was formed in March last year, and is made up of six children, including lead singer Li Guoran, guitarist Zhang Ruixiang and drummer Qiu Zixin, with an average age of 10.

According to their music teacher Ha Xue, it was formed to perform folk songs and compositions based on Qiang folk music.

"The original idea of forming a band was to make our school's musical education interesting and appealing to children. Our goal is to popularize our folk music and allow this beautiful music to reach a wider audience," says Ha, a music teacher at two local primary schools in Maoxian county. She adds that one of the members in the band is Yu Mengxiaofeng, who plays a Qiang musical percussion instrument made of sheepskin.

"We collected old songs of our ethnic group, many of which even have no written lyrics and are passed down by elders humming to their children," says the teacher. "I worked with the children to turn the old songs into new pieces with contemporary instruments. We plan to release an album this year featuring some of the songs we collected and adapted."