Sterling woman opens new music studio

STERLING – Born into a musically inclined family, and with a father who also played violin, Molly Jacobs, of Sterling, was only 3 years old when she took up the instrument.

As the years went by, Jacobs continued to take lessons, learned more instruments and sang. She started informally teaching a couple kids when she was 16, and shortly after graduating with a music degree from Olivet Nazarene University in 2020, she put her education to good use as a music teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Dixon.

At the same time she was teaching in Dixon, Jacobs, who is accomplished in piano, violin, guitar, voice and ukelele, began teaching private music lessons to six kids in January 2021. That’s when her phone started ringing; as people learned she was teaching private lessons, more were trying to get on her schedule.

So many called that Jacobs was faced with a decision: continue to teach in the school classroom or chase her dream of becoming a private instructor.

“I taught for two years at Jefferson, and my last year at Jefferson I was just accumulating these private students,” she said. “Teaching privately is what I loved doing and so it was really hard for me to say no when I was getting asked. It got to the point where I had like 15 private kids, which is a lot to handle, and it felt like I had two jobs almost.”

She resigned from her job in May 2022, took a leap of faith and began teaching privately in her home in June 2022, thinking she would try it for one year.

“My last year at Jefferson I had this moment. I was, like, ‘I just should start punching numbers,” she said, adding that she talked to mentors and ran the numbers. “It got to the point where I was, like, ‘I think I could make this work.’ It started so well, and I doubled my numbers within the course of a year.”

Her decision resulted in her new music studio that she opened Sept. 1 – Miss Molly’s Music Studio, at 2000 N. Locust St., in Sterling. It is there that she instructs about 60 students in sessions that last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour each week. She will teach children as young as 3, since that was the age when she started, as well as adults. Would-be students are on a waiting list to get in for lessons.

“This was always my dream. I thought it might happen further down the road,” she said. Her next goal is to add more teachers and expand her offerings.

She is planning an open house for the public at 2 p.m. Oct. 21 at Miss Molly’s Music Studio. Jacobs can be reached at 319-464-2861.