Gene Marie Callahan was born in Glens Falls, New York, and is a Lecturer in Creative Arts at Siena College where she directs the chorus and teaches Basics of Singing. Her conducting career began while she was a high school student and she has held organist, choir director, and soloist/cantor positions in churches and synagogues in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, and Vermont. She was the guest conductor for the Chorale’s 2022 performance of Bob Chilcott's A Little Jazz Mass and Five Days That Changed The World. She has been a co-conductor for Saratoga Children’s Chorus, and she has taught voice at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts where she also conducted the chorus; Castleton University; Skidmore College; and the Emma Willard School.  A member of the American Choral Directors Association, Gene Marie conducted a movement of Maria Riccio Bryce's “What Remains Is Love” at the 2025 summer conference.

A critically acclaimed award winning soprano, Callahan made an operatic debut with Chicago Lyric Opera and has sung more than 70 operatic and oratorio roles throughout the United States and Austria. A featured soloist with the Chorale for more than two decades Callahan was appointed Artistic Director of the Battenkill Chorale in June 2022, having served as guest conductor in 2018 and 2021-2022.