Talley later attended the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, holding successive fellowships in music theory, piano, and choral conducting.
After earning his Master of Music degree in 1967 from the institute – the oldest conservatory in the United States and one of the world's most highly regarded performing arts schools – he began a doctoral program.
Under his direction, the Glee Club appeared in more than one hundred nationally televised programs and were featured on NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, the CBS Morning Show, numerous appearances on the Kennedy Center Honors, several U.S. Presidential Inaugural Galas, and a twenty-year run on NBC/TNT's annual Christmas in Washington.
Additions to the program included an annual spring oratorio, expanding the choral repertoire to include major works for chorus and orchestra such as Requiems by Verdi, Mozart, and Brahms, symphonies with chorus by Beethoven, Mahler, and Vaughan Williams and other major works such as Mendelssohn's Elijah and Haydn's Creation.
[12] Talley was an ardent believer in the value of professional leadership for the academy's music program,[citation needed] expanding its staff of two in 1971 to its present[when?]
size of 19, with highly trained leadership[weasel words] for the Drum & Bugle Corps, the Orchestra, Women's Glee Club and Gospel Choir, music theatre, full-time office staff, professional singers for its chapel program and a dedicated ticketing operation.
[14] Talley continues to work actively as a musician, directing Annapolis Music Festivals,[15] working as an associate conductor with Encore Creativity's Chautauqua program[16] in western New York, serving as a choral clinician, and filling in from time to time as guest organist at local churches, including the Naval Academy Chapel.