Violins of different sizes and colors gleam through glass windows, lining the wall of a little shop on Orrington Avenue. 

The shop, Chicago Strings, is a local violin restoration store that opened in 2009. Longtime musician Jeff Yang owns the shop, which sells, repairs and restores violins and bows. 

Yang said he wanted the shop to be a smaller destination store. Starting was difficult, he said, but has given him new opportunities. 

“I didn’t have the money and backing of families … of information, records and sales,” Yang said. “So I took a little side road, started doing rentals for students, and then started working with more modern makers, artists of our time all around the world.” 

Before the shop, Yang worked as a street musician in Seattle, later moving to Chicago to pursue a master’s fellowship at Northwestern. He kept playing on the streets of the city to make his rent. 

In 2000, Yang began working on instruments out of his home. Nine years later, he secured a storefront for Chicago Strings, which is now a staple of downtown Evanston.

Chicago Strings bow specialist Juan Horie began his career playing in a professional orchestra in Venezuela. After immigrating to Chicago, he met Yang and started working on restoration and repairs. Horie said the shop serves NU students and Evanston residents alike, but regardless of who comes, they do so because of Yang’s talent.

“Most of the clientele comes from word of mouth because Jeff is a very good violinist, who has been in Chicago for … more than 20 years,” Horie said.

Yang has both education and experience in music, earning a master’s at NU for violin, as well as playing with orchestras and bands around the world. He is currently a member of the Chicago Philharmonic and Skokie Valley Symphony. The relationships he forged with professors and musicians led him into the music business, Yang said.

Along with the storefront, Yang said Chicago Strings simultaneously acts as a base for his passion project, In the Realm of Senses.The artistic nonprofit puts on shows and events related to the interconnectedness of senses, such as smell and touch, with art and music. 

“I combine many different modes of art,” Yang said. “Working with artists, from music to visual arts to perfumery to chefs to writers, kind of all integrated into one.” 

Ultimately, the organization seeks to promote involvement in the arts, said June Matayoshi, oboist and board member for In the Realm of Senses.

“What it takes in is not just doing performances but really getting people involved on a bigger scale (and) developing an operational foundation for the organization,” Matayoshi said. 

Some of their shows pair unique scents with music, art and food; string quartets along with cigars and live art creation; and classes on whiskey tasting with colors, music and scents.

Yang said he hopes through the organization, he can expand people’s perceptions of music and art. 

“I always thought that the art and the music that we experience and we create are rather two-dimensional: without smell and without touch,” Yang said. “I used to be at Northwestern practicing and I would just turn off the lights and practice in the dark, and you have a completely different experience.”

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