Alu Azhuo [Photo provided to China Daily]

For Chinese composer Zhang Qianyi, his muse is the country's ethnic groups.

One of his most famous works is the pop song released in 1993, entitled Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which was inspired by the natural scenery of the Tibet autonomous region and Northwest China's Qinghai province.

He also composed for a Chinese opera produced by the National Center for the Performing Arts, entitled Lan Huahua, in 2017, which was based on folk music of Northwest China.

Recently, Zhang released an album, which contains all his music based on Chinese ethnic groups done over the past 20 years.

The album called Legend features 13 songs composed by Zhang, including Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and performed by Chinese singer, Alu Azhuo, who is from the Yi ethnic group.

Chinese songwriters, including Zhang's longtime friend, Qu Yuan, also wrote lyrics for some of the songs.

Speaking about the album, Zhang, 60, who was born in Shenyang, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, and was introduced to music by his father, a wind instrument player, says: "While preparing the song list, I reviewed my trips to those remote ethnic regions and I still feel amazed by the natural scenery and local culture."

Zhang started to play violin at the age of 6 and learned to play the bassoon at 12.