Clare Callahan, Professor of Classical Guitar

Clare Callahan studied classical guitar with Emile Bibobi (Wimbledon England), Sophocles Papas (Washington D.C.),student and teaching assistant) and Andrés Segovia (Spain). She was a scholarship winner to Música en Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the author of a transcription/edition of Jacques Gallot’s Pièces de Luth (1672). She has given recitals in England and the US on lute and guitar and also performed on the Area Artist Series for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as well as on the Taft Museum Chamber Music Series, NPR and PBS.

An adjudicator for national and international competitions, guest lecturer, teacher/performer, and clinician for MENC, OMTA, ASTA, GFA, and Suzuki meetings, Callahan received the Distinguished Service Award from the ASTA Guitar Division for service on the Executive Board, and has served several terms on the Advisory Board of the of the Guitar Foundation of America.  She also was selected to sit on the Solo Recitalists Panel at the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its first classical guitar representatives.

In 1972, she initiated a Classical Guitar degree program which is integrated into the conservatory curriculum with a full complement of courses in repertoire, pedagogy, ensemble, and chamber music, as well as weekly performance classes, a graduate performance practicum, guest masterclasses ecitals, and the annual residency of Italian maestro Oscar Ghiglia who has been a Visiting Artist since 1974.  The CCM Classsical Guitar Ensemble tours twice a year performing at colleges, secondary schools, concert series et al throughout the midwest area showcasing the instrument and its repertoire. Graduates have gone on to become performers, teachers, transcribers, competition winners, directors of guitar programs, editors, and active members in the professional music community.

In May 2003, the department celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a reunion weekend and a special concert featuring alumni as well as current students, a newly commissioned guitar quartet by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, ensemble and solo performances, and a gala reception.  In June 2005, Callahan received the Ernest Glover Outstanding Teacher Award.  She is also Founder/Director of CCM’s Classical Guitar Workshop which began in July 1983.  It annually hosts guitarists from all over the country as well as around the world for a week of masterclasses, ensembles, technique classes, concerts and special sessions.

In April of 2013, the CCM Classical Guitar Department will celebrate its 40th Anniversary with another reunion weekend, special concert, new piece by Jeffrey Van, alumni and current student performances, a gala reception and assorted festivities - enjoying friendships and musical triumphs of the past four decades, while pressing ahead with renewed enthusiasm and advocacy for the future of classical guitariana.