Haag Academy truly is a magical place
Just returned from our fourth Orchestra Hall, The Magic Strings of Youth, Betty Haag Academy concert.
I struck up a conversation with a veteran usher: “They’re quite good! Definitely one of the top amateur groups I’ve ever heard on this stage.”
To achieve this near perfection takes time, dedication, focus, long hours of practice, grace, timing, composure. Picture standing erect, in place for two hours. Balancing an irregular-shaped instrument between your shoulder and chin. Stroking the bow onto various strings and synchronizing your fingers in fast sequences of pressures and locations — done in complete unison; more than 200 students preschool through high school. No music sheets, just memorization.
Music skills correlate to higher educational scores, self-discipline, self-confidence and poise. As mentor, director and true leader, give Mrs. Haag all the credit in the world, however she doesn’t do it solo. Her close-knit staff is dedicated.
Her associates, through their generosity, have afforded many scholarships to students. Students have said: “Without your constant love and direction, I would definitely not be the person I am today.” “My life may have taken a completely different path had it not been for you. You believed in me, inspired me, and opened me to music and beyond.”
Our daughter picked up a violin at age 4, one the size of a hammer. She had a 15-minte lesson once a week because that’s all we could afford. Now a decade later, her lesson time has doubled. She is at the cusp — about to enter high school and feeling time constraints of practicing, studying and enjoying adolescence.
Her instructor, Edyta Mrugala, a younger Mrs. Haag, has shown our daughter love, dedication, patience and faith. The scholarship our daughter has been offered has immensely helped our family’s ability to pay (due to) my wife’s MS and my cancer bills.
We are and will be forever grateful for the past and present opportunities our daughter will have to enhance her future! I think I speak for every parent who only wants the best for their children. Sometimes, the world is a blessed and beautiful place!
Randy F. Gollay
Buffalo Grove