About Stephanie
Stephanie Railsback is a violist and violin/viola teacher with over twenty-five years of performance and teaching experience. She is a busy classical musician, performing both modern and period baroque orchestral and chamber music, and is co-author of the best-selling Musician’s Practice Planner.
Stephanie is currently a member of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She was formerly the assistant principal violist of the California Symphony, a member of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, the Sacramento Symphony, and the Carmel Bach Festival orchestra.
She has performed and/or recorded with the San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque, the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, the Sacramento Philharmonic, and many other orchestras and ensembles throughout California.
Also active in the world of pop music, Stephanie toured the U.S. with Eric Clapton in 1998. She has performed with Kenny G, Bruce Hornsby, the Moody Blues, Dianne Reeves, Keiko Matsui, and Ray Charles. She once played an outdoor concert for over 100,000 fans on Copacabana Beach with Brazilian superstars Daniela Mercury, Leila Pinheiro, and Nana Caymmi.
An active participant in music education in Oakland, CA, Stephanie teaches strings at Patten Academy and also teaches violin classes at Saint Martin de Porres School in a special music program founded by famed mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. Stephanie coordinates the Certificate Advancement Program for the American String Teachers Association in northern California and assists in teaching keyboard classes for the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s MUSE program. Early in her career, she was head of the Suzuki program at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.
Throughout her career she has kept an active private teaching studio. Focusing on the developmental needs of young children, Stephanie’s teaching emphasizes the building of self-esteem and self-discipline through mastering violin and viola technique, setting both weekly and long-term goals, and participation in recitals and adjudicated performances. Her students have ranged in age from three to sixty-three!
Stephanie attended Northwestern University as a viola performance major and received her Bachelor of Music in viola performance from Indiana University.
Her teachers include Robert Swan (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Abraham Skernick (Cleveland Orchestra), Mimi Zweig (Indiana University), and Isadore Tinkelman (San Francisco Conservatory).
Stephanie is a member of the American String Teachers Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the American Federation of Musicians.
You can also see information about Stephanie at the website of her publishing company, Molto Music.
