Mr. Gallagher's Exotic Dances was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music by the former editor of American Music magazine. In 1997, his The Persistence of Memory was selected by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra for performance at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. In 1996, he was named "Ohio Composer of the Year" by the Ohio Music Teachers Association. A member of BMI since 1980, he has received support and recognition for composition from The Charles Ives Center for American Music, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Program, the Yaddo Corporation, Meet the Composer, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Petit Jean International Art Song Festival, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Greater Wayne County Foundation, the Virginia/College Band Directors National Association, the Southern Arts Federation Meet the Composer Program, and The College of Wooster Henry Luce III Fund for Distinguished Scholarship.

His compositions have been performed, recorded or read by the Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Krakow, the Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Koszalin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, the Spoleto Brass Quintet, the Air Force Band of Flight, the Heritage Chamber Players, and many others. His compositions have been published or recorded by Vienna Modern Masters, the Musical Heritage Society, Pantheon Music International, Cornell University Wind Ensemble Recordings, Lawson-Gould, Ludwig Music, The Brass Press, Queen City Publications, Manduca Music, and The Piano Teacher's Press. He is listed in the 1998-99 International Who's Who in Music. He lives in Wooster with his wife, who teaches piano, his daughter and son, two cats and a golden retriever.