Jameson Varpness Leftridge, who received his Master of Music from the Glenn Korff School of Music in May, received Volunteer of the Year honors from the Lincoln Homeless Coalition for his music outreach at Matt Talbot Community Kitchen and Outreach Center.
Each November, in honor of Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Month, the Lincoln Homeless Coalition sponsors a special recognition event to give awards to those in the community who have made a significant, positive impact on the issue of homelessness in Lincoln. Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach provides meals twice a day daily for the homeless and near-homeless in Lincoln.
“I was completely surprised by it,” Leftridge said. “I’ve always seen what I’ve been doing as a really kind of simple thing. It was a humbling and overwhelming thing to be recognized in that way.”
His work began as a community service project of UNL’s Music Teachers National Association chapter about a year and a half ago.
“We had a few pianists from UNL who would go and take turns playing once a week at Matt Talbot during their dinner hour,” he said. “And then it was just something I continued to do once we were finished with that project. It felt like a good way to contribute and was something I enjoyed doing, so I kept going.”
He credits Professor of Music History Pamela Starr and her connection to Kim Einspahr from the Hildegard Center for the Arts to get it started.
“I owe a lot of thanks to Pamela Starr here at UNL and to Kim Einspahr,” he said. “The Hildegard Center for the Arts purchased the piano that Matt Talbot has and donated it to them, so they were looking for outreach projects that involved music and using that piano. Through their connection, they pulled me in and got me started with it, so it’s been a wonderful collaboration in that way, too.”
He enjoys playing for Matt Talbot’s guests.
“It’s a way of connecting with the outside community, especially when I started,” Leftridge said. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the bubble of the university, and so it was a neat way to connect with the larger community of Lincoln. I have to admit, it’s sometimes my favorite playing that I do during the week. It’s just completely for enjoyment and sharing it with others, and it’s a low-stress, easy atmosphere, so it’s a relaxing, rejuvenating experience for me as well.”
His playing provides background and relaxing music to offer atmosphere, but he also has a number of people who want to talk to him.
“There are a number of people that come up and they either want to talk about how music is an important part of their life and I used to play this or I used to be in this ensemble or I used to sing,” he said. “So I’ve had to learn to talk and play at the same time because they often want to have a conversation while we’re there.”
He has also had people that want to play something.
“Some people know a pop tune or there will be the occasional person who is really fluent with improvising jazz, so it’s kind of surprising in that way,” he said. “Or someone will bring over their son or daughter who is interested in seeing what it’s all about. It’s been a neat interaction with all the people there.”
He says music is kind of a universal language.
“It seems like everyone has some sort of connection to music, whether it’s ‘I have a family member that played,’ or ‘I grew up listening to my grandmother playing and this reminds me of it,” he said. “It’s just so wonderful because it brings back memories in that way.”
Leftridge, who is originally from Minnesota, has his own piano studio in Lincoln. He is also the assistant organist at Grace Lutheran Church and is a special education para-educator for Lincoln Public Schools. He plans to stay in Lincoln for the foreseeable future.
“Lincoln has been a really wonderful community to kind of land in by chance,” he said. “It’s proven to be a place full of opportunities and full of different types of experiences.”
He has been playing the piano since he was eight years old.
“It’s just been something that’s been important enough in my life that I can’t really imagine letting go of it, and it doesn’t let go of me either,” he said.
He plans to continue playing at Matt Talbot.
“I plan to continue playing as long as it’s available to me there,” he said.
The Homeless Coalition recognition event made him appreciate all the work that is done in Lincoln for the homeless.
“It was interesting because the gathering was made up of a number of different organizations and people that work for outreach to the homeless and human services, so in some ways, I felt a little like a black sheep because I’m not in that field,” Leftridge said. “But it was really a wonderful, uplifting event to see so many different people and the ways they’re contributing. Like I told them there, I was really overwhelmed by it, but really grateful at the same time that those people exist and that they work so hard to open doors and create opportunities for other people to share what they might contribute to the community. In the way that I feel like my part is a really small part that I’ve done, but without them there to provide the opportunity to help contribute in that way, I probably wouldn’t have ended up there.”