Redbook picks Mason cellist for juggling career and family

Mason resident Leah Jacob, 31, is featured in this month's Redbook magazine, as one of 10 women nationwide singled out for a Redbook/Silpada "Design Your Life" award.

Jacob, a cellist who performs in an orchestra, teaches more than 20 students, manages a wedding trio and runs a summer music camp called "Cellissimo," impressed the judges because of her smart child-care solution: Bartering cello lessons for baby-sitting. She is mom to three, ages 4, 2 and 3 months.

"Genius!" says Alison Brower, executive editor of Redbook.

Jacob says she wasn't waiting to learn if she had won, after entering the contest last summer. She was too busy having her third child, playing principal cello in the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra and booking weddings for her group, the Rosé Trio. They have 36 gigs booked for this summer. (See rose-trio.com for information. It's named for Alma Rosé, the famous violinist who was imprisoned and started a women's orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II.)

"I kind of forgot entering, and when they contacted me, I was so surprised," says the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate.

She says the honor has not meant instant celebrity, although friends have noticed the feature. She won a pearl-and-silver necklace and earrings from the sponsors, Silpada Designs.

Says Redbook's Brower: "Leah stood out because she found a way to take her passion for music and turn it into a career that works for her and for her family. It's easy to let creative and artistic pursuits fall by the wayside when grown-up life and responsibilities take over. But Leah always had a vision of a life she would love – satisfying her spirit and building a great home and family life – and she never lost sight of the importance of both of those goals."