Students from the Language and Music school of Oak Park will perform their Spring Recital for residents and the public at the Arms.

The Language and Music School was founded by Maria Fermi and Martha Yelenosky. What began privately in a teacher’s apartment in 1990 with just six students learning a combination of Spanish, piano, violin, guitar and recorder lessons is now an establishment with 25 teachers and hundreds of students. The school provides students (from age four to adults) with a unique environment in which nearly a dozen languages and dozens of instruments are taught daily.

Fermi is a music professor from the Conservatorio de Musica Julian Aguirre with studies in Music Therapy and ongoing studies in child development and developmental disorders such as Asperger’s Syndrome, Autism, ADHD and Bipolar Disorder.

Yelenosky is on staff at the Northwestern University School of Music and has been president of the Chicago Area Music Teachers Association (C.A.M.T.A.) Jazz Festivals of Chicago since 1997.

Private 30-minute classes are offered, once a week. Languages taught include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and English as a second language. Instruments taught include wind, brass, guitar, piano, percussion, strings, voice and music composition. In addition, group immersion Spanish classes are available for children and pre-school, after-school, kindergarten and summer camps available for kids age two to nine.

Yelenosky and Fermi have also co-authored LMS First Steps in Spanish™ (CDs and materials for teaching Spanish through music-based activities).

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.