The Pogorzelski-Yankee Annual Competition owes its existence to the generosity of two individuals, Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee. 2026 Guidelines. The annual competition calls for a new work composed for and performed on their R. J. Brunner & Company tracker house organ shown here in its former music room setting. The organ is now located at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. See the specifications (N.B. on the Great division, the Gemshorn 8′ has been replaced by the Principal 8′.)
Award: $10,000 cash prize; premiere performance on the Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Organ at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, usually in the spring of each year.
2024 Pogorzelski-Yankee Award Winner
DISSERTATIO DE MAGREPHA, Udi Perlman’s winning composition, was premiered by Janet Yieh at Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Monday, May 20, 2024.
Full Concert Program
TAO Interview with Udi Perlman and Janet Yieh – written by Bruce Neswick
Udi Perlman, an Israeli composer based in New Haven, Connecticut and Berlin, Germany, has been named the 2024 Pogorzelski-Yankee award winner.
Described as “surprising, rich, and colorful” (Haaretz), his music has been commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can Festival, Yale Glee Club, Lysander Piano Trio, International Ensemble Modern Academy, and the European Capital of Culture Festival. His Bruegel-inspired organ work Big Fish Eat Little Fish was written for organist Carolyn Craig, who performed it at Truro Cathedral, UK, Yale University’s Woolsey Hall and across many other venues in the United States.
Perlman is a recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Composer Award, the François Schapira Prize for Composition from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and was composer-in-residence at I-Park Foundation (Connecticut) and Herrenhaus Edenkoben (Germany). Haaretz newspaper named him in 2021 as one of nine “most promising Israeli contemporary composers”. Perlman is a DMA candidate in composition at the Yale School of Music, where his doctoral thesis won the 2022 Friedmann Thesis Prize. He holds degrees from the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin (Artist Diploma) and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (B. Mus. & M.Mus.). His mentors include Christopher Theofanidis, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Yinam Leef and Menachem Wissenberg.
(Photo credit: Matthew Fried)
2025 Pogorzelski-Yankee Award Winner
Christopher Enloe has been named the 2025 Pogorzelski-Yankee award winner. He is a composer, music director, and educator pursuing a DMA in Composition and MM in Music Theory Pedagogy at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where he studies under Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer Kevin Puts.
Christopher’s works have been performed in concerts and festivals across the United States and Europe. His collaborators include a diverse array of ensembles and soloists, including the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Choir, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Nadia Sirota, Ah Young Hong, Ensemble Tacet(i), and Avenue Azure. In the summer of 2023, he served as advising composer, music editor, and discussion panelist for the Baltimore Symphony’s “AI in A Minor” concert. Recent awards for his compositions include a BMI Composer Award (2023), the O/Modernt Composition Award (2023), Musica Sacra Nova (Second Prize, 2023), an AGO Student Commission (2022), and the John Ness Beck Foundation Award (2019).
In addition to his concert music, Christopher works as a church music director and film music assistant, frequenting Los Angeles to work on Emmy award-winning films with LA’s finest session musicians. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and flautist, Rebeca Enloe.
2025 Pogorzelski-Yankee Award Finalists
Past Performances
2023 Composer, Karim Al-Zand – Let Down the Scale of Music from the Sky
2022 Composer, Rachel Laurin – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
2021 Composer, Aaron David Miller – Oceanic Vision
2020 Composer, Henry Martin – It’s About Time
2019 Composer, Frederick Hohman – Listen to The Organ Icons and a discussion with Frederick Hohman.
2018 Composer, Chris LaRosa – Listen to Monument and discussion with Dr. LaRosa.
Listen to Monument in an orchestral version!
2017 Composer, Christopher Adler – Listen to Construct: for organ and a discussion with Professor Adler.
2016 Composer, Claude Baker – Listen to Sept Hommages and a half-hour interview with Dr. John Levey.
Committee on New Music
Alexander Meszler, DMA, Director Email
Elisa W. Bickers, DMA, FAGO Email
Anne K. Laver, DMA Email
Bruce E. Neswick, MM, FRSCM, FAGO Email
Peggy Haas Howell, ex officio (Vice President/Councillor for Competitions and New Music) Email
AGO Headquarters Email
