Can you imagine being a singer/songwriter and suddenly losing the ability to use your voice? Kate Callahan is an accomplished English teacher at Bristol Central High School and a singer-songwriter. Ms Callahan was recently interviewed by AMP about her music career and her experience as a folk musician. She has been in the music industry for a little over 25 years. Her music career took off in 2001. Callahan has won the Hartford Advocate’s “Best Solo Performer” award three times, and she was also the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s featured music artist of 2014. Callahan was named the 16th Connecticut State Troubadour from 2016 to 2018.

Callahan stands out for many things, one being sensitivity with her music and social issues.

The article from her interview with AMP states, “Her work invites attention, through subtle shifts of tone and texture which create a sense of intimacy that lingers well past the fading of the last note.”  Although she had accomplished a beautiful and successful career 30 years ago, she suffered a brain injury in a ski accident and learned that she couldn’t sing anymore. She couldn’t understand that she could make “melodies,” so she gave up on her voice. Since she had given up on her voice, Callahan decided to learn how to play the guitar. Callahan did not believe it was possible to learn, but her teacher treated her like any other student. With time, Callahan became skilled on the guitar and rediscovered her singing voice.

Ms Callahan has answered some questions

L : What drew you to have a musical career?​

Ms Callahan: I grew up playing singing music, playing the cello, singing in choir, and musical theatre. So, I was a very musical kid, but I didn’t have any focus. I didn’t graduate from high school, and say I’m gonna go into music. I went to college, and I sang in some choirs and took some music classes, but I also took science, math, English and all the other classes I needed to take. It wasn’t until I suffered my traumatic brain injury in 1996 that I had to withdraw from college and rehabilitate to regain a lot of my skills, including my singing voice. It wasn’t until that time when I had recovered enough of my personality, my cognitive ability and the physical stamina that I started playing guitar with some real focus. It was almost like the accident gave me a reason to sing about things all of a sudden; I had things to say. That’s when I was in high school, I didn’t know what I had to say, I just knew I liked music. I came out of the recovery of my brain injury with a beautiful gift, which was a gift of a guitar and becoming a singer-songwriter, like really starting to write my own songs and go out and play open mics and all of a sudden I had a career in music. 

L: What has kept your interest in music throughout your life?

Ms Callahan: The people closest to me know that I will never give up music. I may have a very demanding job as an English teacher, grading tons of writing and students’ work all the time. But I’ll never give up the smaller moments when I can give a concert or even go out and play an open mic. Music is like speaking another language, and that’s also what compels me to keep doing it, keeping the muscle memory up for speaking a whole other language.

L: How do you manage both of your careers, and how do you love both of them?

Ms Callahan: I love both of my careers, I really do. The managing part is hard; it takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of energy to be a musician, it takes a lot of energy to be an English teacher. I think the key to it is doing enough things that keep me happy and balanced despite having to do some extreme things in between. A lot of times you miss sleep or you sacrifice personal time because you’re getting ready for a show or you’re grading a giant stack of essays. I think balance is the key, and doing simple good for myself really helps me be able to continue to actually love what I do.

L: What was it like to go from being a singer only to also being an English teacher?

Ms Callahan: OH MY GOD I WAS SO SCARED. I decided I was going to go for it which meant I had to get my certification to teach so I did a program called the ARC program and I was terrified. It was a year long and I had so many doubts: I’m not smart enough, I’m not entertaining enough, I’m not funny enough, I’m not strict enough. I was so doubtful at the beginning but once I finally got into a classroom and took a long term sub position I got my feet wet making lesson plans,and  interacting with students. That’s when that doubt started to disappear more and more confidence and enjoyment started to come into the picture. It was hard because as a self-employed singer everything I was doing was because I wanted to do it and nobody was telling me to do it and now I’m entering a profession where there is a lot of structure and over seeing.

Kate Callahan, an English teacher and singer/songwriter, experienced a traumatic brain injury at a young age and had to learn life again and got the beautiful gifts of her singer/songwriter career that led to her teaching career. Music brought Callahan to so many beautiful opportunities and  helped her show herself in many different ways. Callahan’s music is the voice that shows her.