Prepare to listen to the hand drum and horse-head fiddle

In a spacious room of a five-star hotel in downtown Beijing, people are walking around, watching the streams of cars on Chang'an Avenue flow beneath a warm afternoon sun, and waiting. Suddenly, the sound of a hand drum erupts and the five members of the band Haya appear in the room.

As Zhang Quansheng pulls the strings of a matouqin, a horse-head fiddle, lead vocalist Daiqing Tana, dressed in a long red gown with her hair braided, slowly steps forward.

Other members, including drummer and khommei (throat-singing) singer Bao Yin, guitarist and matouqin player Chen Xibo and bassist Eric Lattanzio, speed up the music and Tana's voice soars, reminding her audiences of Mongolian women riding horses on the grasslands.