How the Long Island opera singer who performed at inauguration went from stage-frightened teen to nationwide sensation

He’s making opera great again.Christopher Macchio, the Long Island vocalist who stole the show singing the “Star Spangled Banner” at President Trump’s second inauguration — earning the nickname “America’s Tenor” — continues hitting high notes in his musical career now as a nationwide sensation.“As a teenager, I really wanted to keep it a secret that I could sing because I did not want anybody to ask me to perform,” Macchio, 46, told The Post.The once timid Holbrook native has a homecoming show Saturday night at the Paramount Theater in Huntington and will be honored by his high school alma mater through the Sachem district’s education foundation on Thursday.It was, after all, at Sachem High School where a very shy Macchio found his God given talents.“I discovered I could sing when I was 13 by listening to and mimicking the soundtrack to ‘The Godfather Part III,'” he recalled.“But at the time, I was a bookworm.

I just wanted to be left alone in the library.”The powerful tenor isn’t exaggerating that his love of belting out beautiful notes was exclusively done in private.He even told his choral teacher, “You can fail me, but I won’t sing in front of people.”However, the educator challenged Macchio and ultimately broke the teenager out of his shell by getting him to sing one-on-one after the whole class left one day.“He just couldn’t believe it.

‘Oh my God, I never heard a voice like this in all my years of teaching!'” Macchio recalled.“At the end of all of that, he just said ‘What exactly is it you intend to do with your life?’ And at that time, I said, ‘Well, I think I’m going to practice law and be an attorney.’ And he just looked at me like I was crazy and said, ‘wrong answer.'”That moment put Macchio on a trajectory to stardom, and with a bit of help from fate, a first meeting with Trump a decade ago.Macchio first became Trump’s musical apprentice on New Year’s Eve of 2015 after getting calle...