Classical music and contemporary society have never had much in common.

For the last few years, Matt Haimovitz has been trying to bridge the gap all by himself.

Israeli-born cellist Haimovitz is making strides to help bring classical music to new audiences by performing pieces by contemporary American composers.

He recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s politically charged rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

“I’m not trying to change people’s votes,” Haimovitz says. “I think music can be a stronger political statement than glorifying the military.”

Recording politically charged pieces for cello may seem unlikely to the average classical enthusiast, but considering Haimovitz’s uncommon approach to delivering classical music to audiences, it seems on par.

Last year, after 15 years of playing in the world’s most elite concert halls, Haimovitz decided to break classical protocol.

He decided to embark on a tour that would bring classical music to a new, younger audience.

By taking his cello out of large concert halls and into coffee shops and smaller clubs accustomed to rock shows, he brought the sounds of classical cello to an audience that might not otherwise have come to see him.

“I think this is a music that should be available to everyone; it’s like Shakespeare,” Haimovitz says.

“I do think it’s for everyone — read Shakespeare and not everything will appeal to everybody but it will trigger an emotion; it won’t leave you neutral.”

Haimovitz says the motivation for his decision to do a small club tour was playing in concert halls each night and not seeing any of his generation in the audience.

Bringing his music to the audience rather than relying on them to come to him helped Haimovitz strip away some of the pretense often associated with classical music.

“I think they feel comfortable coming to a place they go to every week and checking out a new musical experience on their home turf,” Haimovitz says. “Fifty to 75 percent of the audience is in their 20s and 30s.”

For Haimovitz, it has gotten easier to play in local clubs, after playing so many.

Currently, he is in the midst of a 50-state tour that has him driving coast to coast in his hybrid car, playing small venues throughout the nation. He says he still vividly remembers his first club experience.

“It was terrifying. It was a club in North Hampton, Mass. — there was a broad array of people, classical, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll fans,” he says.

“On an artistic level, I had never done any public speaking or had any rapport with the audience, but after I got the first laugh it made me keep trying. I think it reached them, without self-conscious knowledge, on an emotional level.”

While Haimovitz has been converting audiences all around the country, not all responses have been positive.

Initially, he received a small amount of friction from the classical community who didn’t understand what he was doing.

“At first they went kind of crazy. They might have looked down on it — people are afraid to cheapen it or degrade it,” Haimovitz says. “But it doesn’t matter if you are playing in a subway or a concert hall; it doesn’t change the greatness of the music.”

Though he loves playing in intimate settings, Haimovitz says he still loves performing with a full symphony and creating music that would be impossible to recreate within the bounds of a coffee shop.

“For me, it’s a combination,” Haimovitz says.

“My ideal is to do a symphony and an intimate tour.”

Who: Matt Haimovitz

Where: M-Shop

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Cost: $8 student, $12 public