Changing Children’s Lives through Music Lessons
Stephanie Railsback has taught violin and viola lessons for over 25 years, and she realized many years ago that children get far more value from her lessons than simply learning to play an instrument.
What children learn from music lessons is how to experience success. Once a child tastes success, their appetite for more success grows. Feeling successful leads to a rise in their self-esteem and in their ability to imagine future possibilities for their lives.
Inspiring children comes about by placing kids in a fun, supportive setting where they are continuously praised for achieving goals. Stephanie provides this environment in her music lessons.
Stephanie’s philosophy is simple: Goal achievement in music is a pathway to success in life. This is why she teaches – to change children’s lives through the lessons learned playing music.
Performing Experience
In addition to teaching, Stephanie is a professional violist with decades of performing experience. She is a busy classical musician, performing both modern and period baroque orchestral and chamber music.
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.
Educating Young Musicians
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.
More About Stephanie
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. She coordinates the San Francisco area Certificate Advancement Program for ASTA.
Stephanie is the co-author of the best-selling Musician’s Practice Planner. You can see more information on this notebook and other helpful products for musicians at the website of her publishing company, Molto Music.
When she’s not teaching or performing music, Stephanie keeps busy hiking, swimming, gardening (including mentoring gardeners in inner city neighborhoods), and traveling.
