For their last recital of the 2015-16 season at UMD, Daraja explores the variety of ways short-story, fairytale, or poetry could be incorporated within the wind quintet medium. The first half of the concert is devoted for the two top prizewinners in Daraja’s first ever Composition Competition held in March of 2016, Ray Fields and Eric Pazdziora. In Ray Fields setting of Babuska Baba Yaga, we are reminded to judge not by rumor or appearance, but by what we know in our hearts to be true. A Unique Tale for Wind Quintet, Narrator, and Mezzo-Soprano by Eric Pazdziora transports the audience to the world of Irish fantasy and folklore. For this piece, Daraja is joined by the talented Mezzo-Soprano, Sarah Best. Not only is Sarah featured as a soloist in the Unique Tale, but also in the piece that begins the second half entitled Minnelieder, a song cycle for Mezzo-Soprano and Wind Quintet by R. Murray Schafer. All aspects of love are addressed through Schafer’s settings of various Medieval German Poems. The concert will close with a work by Luciano Berio entitled Opus Number Zoo: Children’s Play for Wind Quintet. Perhaps one of the most unique works in the quintet repertory, Opus Number Zoo straddles the boundary between music and theater.