Artist Faculty

Our highly qualified Artist Faculty have worked extensively with teenage pianists and have many award-winning students to their credit. The faculty is in-residence at the camp and are available for conversations and sharing throughout the day.

Artistic Director & Faculty Dr. Andrew Staupe

Pianist Andrew Staupe is emerging as one of the distinctive voices of a new generation of pianists. Andrew has appeared as soloist with many of the top orchestras throughout the United States and in Europe, including the Baltimore Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the George Enescu Philharmonic in Romania, and many others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors Osmo Vänskä, Cristian Macelaru, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Litton, Lucas Richman, Josep-Caballe Domenech, and Philip Mann. Andrew has performed recitals across the United States and extensively in Europe, appearing in distinguished concert venues including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow, the Schumann Haus in Leipzig, and the Salle Cortot in Paris.

An avid chamber musician, Andrew has jammed with legendary vocalist Bobby McFerrin, played Tangos with the Assad Brothers, and has collaborated with numerous other distinguished instrumentalists and singers. He recently recorded his debut CD with violinist Hasse Borup for the Naxos label in Copenhagen which will be released in 2020. Andrew has a keen interest in performing new music and has collaborated with composers Howard Shore, Augusta Read Thomas, Yehudi Wyner, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Pierre Jalbert, Richard Lavenda, and Christopher Walczak among others. Other notable performances include concerts at Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York, and the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress in Washington DC. He has been heard twice on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” and on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” in 2004.

Deeply committed to teaching, Andrew is an Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Houston, and formerly taught at the University of Utah. He is Artistic Director of the Young Artist World Piano Festival in Minnesota, and gives frequent master classes and lectures around the United States. A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, he earned his Doctorate at Rice University with Jon Kimura Parker, and also studied at the University of Minnesota with Lydia Artymiw.

Faculty Dr. Paul Wirth

Dr. Paul Wirth is a prominent figure in our national piano teaching community. With his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Temple University, and his Master and Doctorate degrees in Piano Performance from Indiana University, he co-founded and is now the Artistic Director of the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts in St. Cloud, MN, a bustling performing arts center with 300 students taught by a faculty of twenty. He has also been on the faculty of the University of Northwestern, MN as Artist in Residence.

Chosen as the 2004-05 Teacher of the Year by Thursday Musical, and inducted into the Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame, Dr. Wirth has taught numerous first prize-winning students of regional, national and international competitions – with thirty-eight of his pre-college students having performed over eighty solo performances with orchestra, including appearances with the Minnesota and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras.

In addition to his presentations at conventions and conferences, Dr. Wirth’s GRAVI-DVD – a cutting edge DVD on teaching piano technique to children – is available on Youtube, with the long awaited Gravi-DVD II now being distributed everywhere. His masterclasses, most recently at the Suzuki Music School of Westport Connecticut, the Northern Ohio Music Teachers Association, and the Minnesota Music Teachers Association 2019 Convention are always well received, and his presentations, drawing upon 38 years as a pre-college specialist teaching advanced concepts to 4 -18 year olds, often elicit further engagements. This past January, he was featured in a guest artist tutorial on the wildly popular ProPractice YouTube channel of Dr. Josh Wright.

Wirth is also an avid supporter of young performers, having co-founded the Salon se Lève concert series in Minneapolis and the internationally recognized Young Artist Piano Camp, summers in Minnesota. Wirth devotes his time to teaching young artists, presenting at conventions, conferences and piano teacher organizations, giving masterclasses, teaching teachers, publishing pedagogical materials, and practicing! Dr. Wirth maintains three studios: at the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts in St. Cloud, MN, at the Schmitt Music Center in Brooklyn Center, MN, and at his home in St. Joseph, MN where he lives with his wife and greatest support, Kathy.

Faculty Deanna Andersen

Deanna Andersen holds a Master’s degree in Music Education – Piano Pedagogy from the University of St. Thomas, and a B.A. in both Piano Performance and Biblical Literature from Simpson University, CA. She continues to enjoy studying piano with Dr. Paul Wirth; past teachers have included Katherine Faricy, Dr. David Brunell, Dr.Robert Watson, and Beverly Bergstrom.

A nationally certified teacher, she has been an active member of MMTA, serving as Chair of the 2002 Piano Syllabus, co-chair for theTwin Cities District Contest, Chair for the Teacher Original Duet Composition Contest, and a site administrator for piano exams. In addition to belonging to MMTA, she is also active in the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum, St. Paul Piano Teachers Association, and the MN Federation of Music Clubs. She has enjoys serving as President for Salon se Lève – a concert series dedicated to encouraging the emerging young artist. Deanna maintains a large piano studio of all ages (teaching students between 4 and 85) in her home in St. Anthony Village where she lives with her husband, Randy. Their 3 daughters live in North Carolina and Florida.

Faculty Dr. Sara Langmead

Dr. Sara Langmead is a Minnesota native, and made her orchestral debut at age 16 with the 3M Symphony Orchestra. She won first prizes in the MN Schubert Club and UW-Madison Concerto competitions at the collegiate level, studied with György Sebők for two summers at the Banff Centre, and in 1997 won first prize at the international SAI Competition. Dr. Langmead earned her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where she studied piano for seven years with Yoheved Kaplinsky (current chair of the Juilliard Piano Department). Dr. Langmead taught piano at St. Mary’s College-MD, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and at Mercyhurst University-PA as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Department Director. Returning to Minnesota in 2004, Dr. Langmead built and operated a successful piano studio in Circle Pines.

Dr. Langmead joined the Executive Board of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association in 2020 and currently serves on the Piano Education, Piano Contest, and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion committees. She regularly presents clinics and workshops for teachers regarding piano technique, musical gesture, gender representation in piano literature, four-hand music by female composers, and Women Play Beethoven!, her lecture-recital highlighting the legacy and phenomenon of women who have recorded the complete piano sonata cycle of Beethoven. At the local and national level, Dr. Langmead performs as a piano soloist and chamber musician; this summer will mark her third year as artist-in-resident for the St. Paul based Tiny Porch Concert Series.

Dr. Langmead specializes in teaching students the widely sought-after technique of her conservatory training. Her students benefit from a personable acumen accumulated while mentoring students of all ages and levels over a thirty-year career. She enriches the lives of her students and listeners by communicating passionate, creative, and academic insight through enthusiastic teaching, performance, studio class, adjudication, writing, and discussion.

Faculty Dr. Megan Wallace

Megan Monahan Wallace, D.M.A., a native of Butte, Montana, received her Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Nelita True. She earned both her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with pianist Lydia Artymiw. She has performed, taught, and adjudicated in the Twin Cities as well as Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Michigan, Goshen College Piano Workshop, Indiana and Musicfest Northwest, Spokane, WA. In 1999, Megan produced and performed a concert version of Robert Schumann’s opera, Genoveva, in cooperation with many Twin Cities’ musicians in a performance at Sundin Hall, Hamline University. In February 2010, she produced and performed, in conjunction with Trinity School at River Ridge, Eagan MN, the opera Brundibár by Hans Krása with special guest ElaWeissberger, an original cast member from the opera and survivor of the holocaust.

Megan has performed the complete Beethoven piano concerti with the Mayo Clinic Chamber Symphony, Rochester, Minnesota. In June 2009, she performed the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the David Jorlett Chorale on a tour of Vienna, Austria and Rothenberg, Germany. Megan also enjoys collaborating with her husband, pianist/organist, Christopher Wallace. Megan has served as piano instructor and staff accompanist on the faculty of the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts in Central Minnesota, and from 1997-2008, served on the piano faculty at MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she taught piano and chamber music. She is a member of Thursday Musical and performs regularly on the Artist Series programs. More recently, Dr. Wallace served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Piano at St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN from January-May, 2020. Currently, Megan and her husband maintain a private studio in St. Louis Park, MN, Wallace Piano and Organ Studios.