Classical performers who wowed audiences in their tuxedos, but they didn’t look like him. He wanted to change that. As a teen, he won state and national competitions and was selected for a three-city musical by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. He represented his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan in the National NAACP ACT-SO Competition, and later moved to New York to pursue his dream to perform at Carnegie Hall.

While attending Nyack College, he served as pianist for the Nyack Touring Gospel Choir and also opened at Lincoln Center with the ensemble. In addition to being a lead musician for such productions as The Wiz in Central Park, he self-produced The Minor Keys, (2019) with works by Chopin and Schubert, and Crazy Etudes (2021). They ranked #1 on the Classical iTunes charts, and #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Album Charts, respectively making history as the first African American pianist to reach #1. In 2023 he was a participant of the Inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition, where he reached the quarterfinals. Callahan is on the music staff at The Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and Union United Methodist Church in Brooklyn. He plans to release a third album.