Bruce Mitchell brings many years of diverse experience to the stage.  He has been a musician and performer since 1964, and since 1991, a popular local and regional Special Events DJ, Square Dance Caller and Sound Technician.

Bruce retired from the Metro Transit Police Department in December 2002, after 28 years of distinguished service.  He specialized in electronic video surveillance, and spent his last eight years with the Department as the System Administrator and Project Manager.  Bruce is also a staff writer and columnist for Square Dancing Today, a magazine distributed throughout the world.  Bruce, a native born Washingtonian, currently resides in Ellicott City, Maryland with his wife Judy.   Bruce also operates a part time recording studio.

• Bruce has performed as a Square Dance Caller on: The Today Show, 14 televised parades, (including the National Cherry Blossom and the Philadelphia 4th of July Parades,) the FOX   Morning News, and the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

• Musician and performer since 1964.

• Special Events and Club DJ since 1991

• Square Dance Caller since 1991.

• Staff writer and columnist for Square Dancing Today, an internationally distributed magazine.   -----   (Click here to view articles.)

• Former President of the Washington Metropolitan Area Callers Association, member of the Virginia State Callers Association, Former Vice-Chairmen of the Caller Association Liaison   Committee for Callerlab, the International Callers Association. BMI/ASCAP Licensed since 1991.

• Former Vice-Chairmen of Youth Programs for the 49th National Square Dance Convention held in Baltimore, MD, in June, 2000

• Former Chairmen of the Youth Activities Committee for Callerlab.

• Owner/operator of a small professional sound studio. Projects include voice tracking for CDs, vinyl records, instrument recording, and sound tracts for theatrical productions. All studio work is done in the Digital Domain.

* Called on the Today Show 2/95 * Philadelphia Independence Day Parade 7/96, 7/99 * National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade 4/96, 4/97, 4/98, 4/99, 4/01 (Unit featured at the reviewing stand and televised in syndication.) * Fairfax City 4th of July Parade 7/95, 7/97 * City of Falls Church Veterans Day Parade 6/95, 6/96, 6/97, 6/98, 6/99 (Unit featured at the reviewing stand and televised locally.) * Featured Performer/Caller in the Columbia Symphony Orchestra Cowpoke Jamboree, Columbia, MD 3/97 * Called at National Square Dance Conventions 6/92, 6/95, 6/96, 6/97, 6/98, 6/99 * Called at Virginia State Square Dance Conventions 5/94, 5/95 * Featured performer/Caller, in a Prince George's County Glee Club Production, Cheverly Public Playhouse, Cheverly, MD 8/95, * Performed in the Production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Opera House) 11/99.

Re-printed from the Washington Opera Program book:
Production of "Carlisle Floyd's Susannah"
November 6, 1999

Bruce P. Mitchell has been a square dance caller since 1991. He calls regular square dances for the Broken wheels Square Dance Club in Arlington, as well as the Ragamuffins, a youth square dance club in Alexandria. He is a former president of the Washington Metropolitan Area Callers Association, a member of the Virginia State Callers Association, vice-chairman of the Liaison Committee for Callerlab, the International Callers Association. He is vice-chairman of Youth Programs for the 49th National Square Dance Convention© to be held in Baltimore in June, 2000. He has performed as a square dance caller on the today Show, 14 televised parades including the National Cherry Blossom and the Philadelphia Forth of July parades, and the Fox Morning News.

November 22, 1999

Yes, but can he sing?

MTP Officer Bruce Mitchell, an electronic and video surveillance specialist, doesn't go to operas and hasn't acted since high school. So how come he's a key performer (with a private dressing room, yet!) in Susannah, the highly acclaimed American opera performed by the Washington Opera Society at the Kennedy Center through November?  Mitchell's a professional square dance caller.  The opening curtain of the opera rises on a square dance he's calling.  "They (the opera company) just called and asked if I would do it," says Mitchell.  "I said, ''sure''.  I couldn't believe it when I found I would be paid and even had a private dressing room."  His first job was to teach square dancing, something he does all the time, at the rehearsals.  And, Mitchell does sing, since singing the tune is part of calling square dances.   Mitchell's life as a cop may be tame compared to his life as a caller.  He's called dances on NBC's Today Show, and at the reviewing stand of several nationally televised parades, including the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the Fourth of July parades in Philadelphia.  In 1993, he used one of his police skills, CPR, at a dance he was calling when a 69-year-old man "died" in the middle of the dance.   The man, now 75, still shows up at dances and keeps in touch with Mitchell as the man who saved his life.