The Betty Haag Academy holds concert at Orchestra Hall

The Betty Haag Academy of Music in Buffalo Grove will perform its 36th Annual Concert Saturday in Chicago featuring 300 young violinists and five piano soloists from the Northwest suburbs.

Musicians aged 3 to 17 will perform works by Kreisler, Mozart, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn and others at Orchestra Hall. The school teaches children violin and piano.

Betty Haag-Kuhnke played professionally with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and toured as a solo violinist. She also taught master classes to young violinists. She traveled to Japan to work directly with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, who was her inspiration.

Her work with children animates her life, once saying, “It seems clear to me that if I can fill young souls with a love of beautiful music, those souls will become beautiful human beings.”

The academy teaches with the Suzuki method until a child is able to read music, then note reading begins.

Saturday's concert will bring together the school's local students with ones in Portugal and San Francisco taught by a former student of Haag-Kuhnke and a former teacher at her school.

Renowned in music pedagogy, Haag-Kuhnke was hired by Northwestern University 15 years ago to teach Portuguese musician Joanna Seybert Jesus. Now, 48 students from “A Pauta” music school, founded by Seybert Jesus and her husband, in Porto, Portugal, will perform with the academy students. Another 22 students from Magical Strings West music school in San Francisco also will perform. The school was begun five years ago by Sue Mann, who taught at the Betty Haag Academy.

The concert offers a chance for parents and their children to see the caliber of performance young musicians can attain. Each piece is chosen for its dynamism and achieves a high level of virtuosity and sophistication.

Haag-Kuhnke is passionate about her work. “I most enjoy watching the children grow from struggling toddlers to very fine, secure, young violinists,” she said. “Some of my students go on to be terrific musicians, but I think, because of their musical training, and the discipline involved, all become incredible citizens and able to succeed in their chosen careers. This has been my biggest inspiration.”

Ÿ Michele Archambault is the parent of a student at the school.

If you go

Who: The Betty Haag Academy

What: Performing the 36th Annual Concert

When: 12:45 p.m., Saturday, May 21

Where: Chicago Symphony Center Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan Ave.

Tickets: $25/$10 for children 10 years and under available at the door or call (773) 944-5502