About
Molto Music
Molto Music Publishing Company creates high quality materials
to help musicians better understand and appreciate music. The
company was founded in 1999 by husband/wife team David Motto and
Stephanie Railsback, two professional musicians and music teachers
in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Musician's Practice Planner, Molto Music's first book, was
conceived in 1997. For two years David, Stephanie, and a select
group of music teachers used an early version of the Practice
Planner with their students. After receiving input from these
teachers, they took it back to the drawing board, honing and improving
the Planner until they felt it was ready to be distributed to
a wider audience. Molto Music Publishing Company was initially
founded to publish the Musician's Practice Planner. The book is
now a best-seller. It is used worldwide by private lesson teachers,
schools, universities, Suzuki programs, and performers of classical,
jazz, and popular music.
Stephanie Railsback is a violist and violin/viola teacher with
twenty years of teaching experience. She was head of the Suzuki
program at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and currently
teaches at Patten Academy in Oakland. Throughout her teaching
career she has kept an active private teaching studio. Her students
have ranged in age from three to sixty-three!
Stephanie is a busy classical musician, performing both modern
and period baroque orchestral and chamber music. She has performed
and/or recorded with the San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia
Baroque, the Sacramento Symphony, the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra,
the Women's Philharmonic, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Also
active in the world of pop music, Stephanie has toured the U.S.
with Eric Clapton and has performed with Kenny G, Bruce Hornsby,
the Moody Blues, Dianne Reeves, Keiko Matsui, and Ray Charles.
She recently performed an outdoor concert on Copacabana Beach
with Brazilian superstars Daniela Mercury, Leila Pinheiro, and
Nana Caymmi.
Electric bassist David Motto has had a private teaching studio
since 1985 and has been a member of the music faculty in the San
Francisco State University jazz and world music program since
1996. He published the critically-acclaimed Essential Sightreading
Studies for Electric Bass, Volume 1 (book and play-along CD) in
May 2002. Volumes 2 and 3 of this series were published in July
2003. David has written for Bass Player and School Band &
Orchestra magazines.
David plays everything from jazz to alternative rock to Brazilian
grooves to orchestral pops. He spent a year as house bassist for
the hit theatre show "Beach Blanket Babylon" and was
a member of rock band Trial by Fire. In demand as a session bassist,
David has recorded with more than thirty groups and has worked
with jazz guitarists Jack Gates and Andre Bush, Chicago bluesman
Jim Kasey, R & B vocalists Richard Waits and Ledisi, folk
rocker Jessie Turner, and British modern rock band Handsome Poets.
He has played world styles with reggae singer Don Jeron, Brazilian
singers Liza Silva and Celia Malheiros, Klezmer band Klezmania,
and Celtic rockers Phoenyx. David has recently written, arranged,
and recorded with jazz vocalist/trumpeter Big Skin.
Molto Music Publishing Company utilizes the design services of
Dean Cook at B33 Design, a talented graphic designer and childhood
friend of company founder David Motto. Dean is also a professional
drummer, and his knowledge of music adds to his flair for designing
music books. For more information on Dean's design work, e-mail
him at dean@b33design.net
or visit his website at www.b33design.net.
We welcome your comments. Let us know if you have suggestions
for improving our books or for making available additional titles.
Also, tell us how we can improve our service to you, our customers.
E-mail us at info@moltomusic.com.
