Eminent American church and concert organist and award-winning composer Charles Callahan is to give a lunchtime recital at Wesley Methodist Church on Friday.

Mr. Callahan's 45-minute programme will include works by Bach, Louis Vierne, and George Shearing, as well as some of his own compositions.

"Vierne, who was blind, was one of the great French organist/composers. He was the organist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and actually died at the console," Mr. Callahan said. "Shearing was born in the UK in 1919, and he too is blind.

"He is a very well respected and renowned jazz pianist and composer who was recently honoured by the Queen.

"He has arranged some early American folk hymns in the contemporary jazz idiom. I will be playing a few of his very beautiful arrangements, as well as some of my own music."

Of the Wesley organ, Mr. Callahan has nothing but the highest praise.

"It is by far the best organ in Bermuda that I have played. It is a magnificent instrument, and is taken care of very well."

A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts who now makes his home in Vermont, Mr. Callahan is a graduate of the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School, the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He also studied in England, France, Germany and Belgium.

His compositions are performed frequently in US churches and at concerts, and his writing style has been described by the Washington Post as "gentle, confident lyricism".

Mr. Callahan's long list of commissions and premières include the St. Louis and Omaha symphonies; St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir in New York; Harvard University Choir; St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, and Canterbury and Gloucester cathedrals, also in the UK; as well as on National Public Radio and the History Channel.

As a church musician and concert organist, he has performed on many of the world's great organs, and is also a recording artist, with many solo albums to his credit.

His most recent CD, 'Cathedral Echoes', was recorded in the magnificent acoustics of the Cathedral-Basilica in St. Louis, Missouri.

Mr. Callahan is also a pianist and teacher, and is teaching piano at the Bermuda School of Music until December an assignment he is enjoying immensely, including wearing Bermuda shorts and knee socks.

"The school has a very good faculty, it teaches many different instruments, and I am delighted to be here," he said. "Everyone is so friendly and collegial. The director, Lloyd Matthew, is particularly collegial, and has been awfully good to me."

Mr. Matthew is also the resident organist and choirmaster at Wesley.

As one might expect of a musician of his stature, Mr. Callahan has enjoyed many highlights during his career, among them twice playing the huge organ at the Mormon Tabernacle in Utah, and being permitted to attend a rehearsal of its 200-strong choir, all of whose members must be devout members of that faith.

In addition to performing on the organ, Mr. Callahan is frequently asked to advise on the design of new instruments, and the restoration of, and improvements to, existing organs.

His two volumes on American organ building history, 'The American Classic Organ' and 'Aeolian-Skinner Remembered', have become standard reference works.

His 'Art of Hymn Playing', used as a practical source in parishes, and as a teaching text in colleges, is in it second edition, and volume two is now in print.

Yet the piano remains his favourite instrument, and he practises "every single day".

He also composes continuously, and writes for piano, organ, full orchestra, and many ensembles.

"When Pope Paul II came to the United States I was asked to write music for his visit, one of which was for when he said mass in Central Park. There were over 100,000 people singing the music I had written," Mr. Callahan says proudly. "I also wrote the 'Gloria' for the big mass at the Dome in St. Louis with full orchestra, and a chorus of hundreds."

Mr. Callahan began studying piano as a young child. His teacher was the renowned pianist, composer, and recording artist Julius Chaloff, whose lessons and wisdom remain instilled within him to this day.

"He was a great mentor, and an unforgettable memory," the organist says, recalling that the great man was never punctual, but always very generous with his time, and regularly sent his student home to his disapproving mother not only late for her freshly-prepared, hot meals but also reeking of smoke from his teacher's ever-lit cigars.

"He told me, 'Technique is your best friend', which is so true, because you can take that with you wherever you go."

Of today's music, and its almost universal presence in shops, grocery stores and elevators, Mr. Callahan is not impressed.

"It is so invasive," he says. "I call it the tyranny of the downbeat. It's all around percussion, and there is no subtlety and no nuance.

"There is more than a downbeat to music. What is rhythm? I like to define it by St. Augustine who said, 'Rhythm is the art of ordered movement'.

"In all of these new compositions there is no order to the movement, and only one rhythm apparent, to the neglect of melody and harmony."

Mr. Callahan's Wesley Methodist recital begins at 12 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Bermuda School of Music. Admission is free, but donations to benefit the school's bursary fund will be welcomed.