Since its opening in October 2010, Yury and Sharon Shenkar’s home music studio has evolved into the five-room music school in the Lower Mills village of Dorchester that they had dreamed of for several years.

The Boston School of Music Arts on Dorchester Avenue provides children and adults of all ages with music lessons and education right in their own backyard— and run by a musical couple who’ve made Dorchester their home as well.

“The school has grown quickly, which is due to an outstanding staff, a great student population, warm and friendly neighboring business owners, and generous student family referrals,” said Sharon Shenkar, executive director and co-founder.

A Berklee College of Music graduate, Yury Shenkar has been playing music for almost 50 years. He first learned the piano at a young age in his native Kiev, Ukraine. Picking up guitar as a teenager, Shenkar apprenticed with Jeannie Deva at her voice studio across from Berklee. As a senior instructor at that studio for 10 years, he also performed with his band and recorded music.

“The biggest show I’ve ever played was in front of 25,000 people in New York where I backed up a Russian celebrity who was known around the world and the Russian community, he said. “But every show is memorable for me because when you perform, you’re always alive.”

Along with his wife, Sharon Shenkar – trained in music, dance, and theater in New York City and a Harvard graduate — they ran a music school for seven years in a private studio in their Dorchester home. Sharon Shenkar said they had students from as far away as Nashville, Tennessee.

“At some point, we started our own studio but eventually it was so big that there was no room to grow,” Yury Shenkar said. “We would need to hire teachers, but couldn’t at home, so we moved to this location.”

After three years of searching for a location, Yury and Sharon moved into their Lower Mills studio which includes digital pianos in each of the five rooms as well as other instruments and musical equipment.

The Shenkars created a school that focuses on a “well-rounded musical education” that includes a variety of different instruments- piano, guitar, drums, brass instruments, accordion, violin- voice lessons, and music theory education.  The school offers private lessons, ensembles, performance workshops, and other classes that focus on certain age groups. They offer instruction in different genres of music such as jazz, rock, blues, and R&B.

BSMA is a performance-oriented school and it holds two major performances during the year for its students since both Yury and Sharon Shenkar feel it helps confidence and skills regardless of the student’s age.

“At our last performance, we had over 60 performers accompanied by a live band,” said Yury Shenkar who currently teaches piano guitar, voice, drums, music theory, and songwriting.

BSMA also hosts other performances throughout the year including Sunday Jazz brunch and Open Mic Nights at the Ledge across the street from the school, Yury said.

“These are key goals that we have for all of our students,” said Sharon Shenkar. “It is well-documented how playing for a live audience improves one’s playing and we just feel so strongly about it, that it’s part of our identity.”

The school currently has eight teachers who have graduated from music schools including Berklee, New England Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory, Sharon Shenkar said. The school requires that teachers must be both performers and teachers with at least a few years of experience.

“With a growing student population, we are both very encouraged to see the benefits to the area for a long time to come,” Sharon Shenkar said.