Cellist Ian Maksin brings a Sunday-afternoon set to Art Gallery Kafe in Wood Dale

The Chicago-based cellist, composer and singer plays the Wood Dale gallery-café on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 5 p.m.; tickets run $25–$35.

Most Sunday shows in the suburbs start after dinner. This one starts while there's still a little daylight, in a room where the art on the walls is part of the reason to be there, and the instrument at the center of it is a cello.

Ian Maksin plays Art Gallery Kafe in Wood Dale on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $35 through DICE. The date was announced Oct. 27, which makes it a quick turnaround: as of this Friday, you have two days to decide.

If the name is new to you, Maksin is a Russian-born, Chicago-based cellist and composer who has built an international reputation, as The Local Tourist's profile puts it, around bringing people together through music. He isn't only a player. Presenters such as Marin Arts bill him as a cellist, composer and multilingual vocalist, and that combination is the draw. A Maksin set can move from instrumental cello work to songs sung in more than one language, which is not what most people picture when they hear "cello recital."

He tours that approach widely. Recent and past presenters range from Chicago's Epiphany Center for the Arts, which staged a program called "The Power of Cello," to Madison's Arts + Literature Laboratory and the Gulf Coast Symphony, where he has appeared as a soloist. A late-afternoon gallery date close to home is a different scale from those stages, and for the audience that's the appeal.

A Maksin set can move from instrumental cello work to songs sung in more than one language.

Art Gallery Kafe is the kind of room that makes this sort of show work. A gallery-café setting puts listeners close to the player, and with an acoustic instrument that matters: you hear the bow on the string, the breath before a phrase, the way a low note fills a small space. It's a listening room by design rather than a bar with a stage in the corner.

For Chicago Suburbs readers, the practical case is simple. Wood Dale sits close enough to O'Hare-area suburbs that this is an easy drive for a lot of the region, and a 5 p.m. start means you're home in time for the work week. The ticket range lets you choose how close you want to be, and in a room this intimate, closer is worth considering.

What to expect: a set built around solo cello, with Maksin's own compositions and voice in the mix. Come curious rather than with a fixed idea of what cello music should sound like. If you've only heard the instrument in an orchestra, hearing it carry an entire program on its own is a different experience.

Because the show was announced only recently and the room is small, don't wait for Sunday morning to buy. Grab a ticket, get there a little early to look at the walls, and settle in for an hour of music that asks you to sit still and listen.

Sources: Ian Maksin Brings the World Together Through Music — The Local Tourist (chicago.thelocaltourist.com); Ian Maksin — Marin Arts (marinarts.org); Ian Maksin: The Power of Cello — Epiphany Center for the Arts (epiphanychi.com); Ian Maksin — Arts + Literature Laboratory (artlitlab.org); Ian Maksin, Cello — Gulf Coast Symphony (gulfcoastsymphony.org); Tickets — DICE (link.dice.fm); JamBase listing (jambase.com)