Often when Midori performs, she’s peppered with questions – and they’re not always about music.

“They want to know how old I am, when I started playing, and what I like to listen to,” says the violinist with a giggle. “And I always tell them the truth.”

“Them,” in this case, refers to New York City elementary-school students – the audience for whom Midori has arranged free concerts, both by herself and others.

It started about nine years ago, when the Japanese-born violinist – who was 20 at the time – grew concerned about what budget cuts would do to the city’s music-education programs.

“I’ve always had music in my life,” says Midori, who started playing the fiddle at 4, when her mother gave her lessons. She says it pained her to think that her adopted city – New York, where she moved at age 11 and where she lives today – would no longer have music in its schools.

And so, using her own money, she started Midori & Friends, a nonprofit group that brings music performance and instruction into the schools.

She recently played Bach and Vivaldi for kids in Harlem and Queens, and asked a few questions of her own:

“We always ask how the music made them feel and one boy, a third-grader, said, ‘It moves my spirit,'” she recalls. “I loved that!”

This week, Midori & Friends will sponsor concerts by the group Un Mundo at P.S. 91 and 139 in Queens, and P.S. 163, 180 and 96 in Manhattan. The week of June 12, there’ll be student recitals and a performance by the Sean Lyons Jazz Ensemble at P.S. 48, 160 and 229 in Queens, and a demonstration by violinist Mark Gunderman at Brooklyn’s P.S. 198.

“The program makes music into a door that opens into many different worlds,” says Midori, who says she enjoys jazz and gospel music along with the classics.

“It becomes a part of life, rather than something you do during school in music class.”