Charles Callahan died December 25, 2023. He was born on September 27, 1951, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was well known as an award-winning composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist, and teacher with over 300 works in print for organ, piano, chorus, solo voice, chamber ensemble and orchestra. He was a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Additional study had been in England, France, Germany, and Belgium.
Introduction
During their seventy-plus-year history it was customary for organs built by the Skinner Organ Company and the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company to contain an ivory nameplate bearing the firm’s name on the console, usually on the keyslip, although there was a brief period in the early 1960s when the company name was stenciled in gold letters in a way similar to that on pianos. Astute aficionados can sometimes even determine the era in which the organ was built by carefully examining the subtle differences in type styles that were used over the years.