Photography by Megan Mumford

This story is part of our annual Capital Region Gives Back initiative that honors 10 locals who are making our community a better place. Read up on all of the 2025 honorees and join us on December 2 for the 7th annual Capital Region Gives Back event at Putnam Place.

When Matt Griffin was in middle school, his band played its very first show at Caffè Lena as part of a mid-week Emerging Artist Breakout series. In high school, he performed at the storied coffee house’s open mic nights, and eventually formed Let’s Be Leonard, a jam band that toured the country throughout the late 2010s. Now, Griffin’s story has come full circle: In January, he became the director of Caffè Lena’s School of Music.

Founded in February 2020 and immediately taken online, the School of Music has now returned to in-person programming that spans from Music with Miss Deb, a pre-K music-in-the-round experience, to an after-school folk ensemble for ages 7–14 and guitar classes for adults. No program costs more than $20 a class.

“Everyone can sing,” Griffin says. “Everybody can play. It’s not just the people on stage. The greatest gift that I can give now as the director of the School of Music is to keep that culture of folk music alive.”

While its School of Music is only five years old, Caffè Lena, located on Phila Street, is the longest continuously operating coffee house in the country. But even in its 65th year, there are locals who’ve never experienced a show at the intimate venue. And there are more still who don’t know that the Caffè is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide music, connection, and learning in a legendary venue.

In his role as director of the School of Music, Griffin leads the Rolling Pebbles and the Jazz Pebbles, two student performing groups that play shows around the Capital Region. One member of the Jazz Pebbles is a 10-year-old prodigy named Neil, who, through Caffè Lena, has begun taking private piano lessons from renowned jazz pianist Chuck Lamb.

It’s this opportunity to connect musicians across generations that Griffin says is the true magic of Caffè Lena. “It’s not like soundcheck for our shows happens behind closed doors and no one’s allowed in,” he says of concerts at the venue. “The kids in the program see these artists loading in and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow—there is a possible career in music for me.’”