Musician diagnosed with MS looks to inspire with keynote concerts

On Monday Oct. 13, musician Jim Perona entertained a crowd at the Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center with a keynote concert, a blend of his motivational words and music.

From a young age, the Wheaton native was obsessed with music and picked up the guitar as soon as he could, ultimately creating a career for himself as a classical guitarist for the last 15 years.

Perona recalls receiving life-changing diagnosis

The keynote concerts began in December 2024, sparked by a life-changing moment the musician experienced two years prior. In March 2022, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

“The day I got my MS diagnosis, it was a very strange day, as you can imagine. But what made it stranger was that it was the day of my 38th birthday. So it made for one of the more bizarre birthday