When she was three, her mother read that a German violin teacher had recently returned from Japan after studying the Suzuki method.

[1] Steinbacher came into contact with Ivry Gitlis, and took part in master classes by Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Sassmannshaus in Aspen, Colorado.

She won several important prizes (the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hanover),[2] and a grant from the Free State of Bavaria in 2001, then became a student of Anne-Sophie Mutter's Freundeskreis ("Circle of friends").

Her recording with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski features the Hindemith and Britten violin concertos.

[7] In April 2023, Steinbacher premiered a new violin concerto, "To beam in distant heavens...", by composer Georges Lentz to great acclaim.