Bruce Casteel

Performing and teaching guitar since 1965 and at Howard Community College (HCC) since 1987, Bruce Casteel is a leader in producing professional guitarists and students who obtain academic degrees. Dr. John Meyers, founder of the Guitar Department at HCC, was Bruce’s student and colleague at Chambers School of Music. As a private teacher, Bruce explores innovative approaches to guitar instruction at all levels to match the goals and abilities of each student. He teaches all students with equal attention and enthusiasm, whatever their aspirations.

Bruce began lessons at age fourteen and formed his own band at fifteen. He continued to perform professionally in various bands for twenty years. Most notably, he has played with Saturday (led by Paul Johns, former arranger and bandleader for Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett), The Buddy Voelker Eighteen Piece Jazz Orchestra, and Instant Simca. In addition, Bruce plays the sitar and guitar-sitar at the Bombay Peacock Grill in Columbia.

For twenty years, he was the top-rated classic guitarist for the Washington, DC agency, Sidney's Orchestras, which gave him the opportunity to play for Bill Gates and Hillary Clinton at the United States Capitol. In 2004 Bruce was invited to play on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. Since 2004 he has performed solo classical guitar styles on Sunday evenings at Ranazul, a tapas restaurant in Maple Lawn, Maryland.

As a student at the Peabody Conservatory in 1969 and 1970, Bruce was first introduced to the idea of expanding the guitar's range beyond six strings by his teacher, Aaron Shearer. He carries on that legacy, performing regularly on an eight-string guitar.