When Christopher Macchio strolled into the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., to sing the national anthem during Monday’s presidential inauguration ceremonies, the 46-year-old opera tenor admitted to being a little nervous.
Understandably.
Although Macchio has for years been performing around the world as a solo artist and member of the New York Tenors, Monday’s political and historical stage put a far larger spotlight on him. He was about to sing in front of a TV audience of millions, including past, present and future leaders of the free world standing with hands over hearts just a few feet away.
Macchio, a favorite singer of Donald Trump’s, has performed at some of the president’s events, including the Republican National Convention in 2020 and at more recent campaign rallies.
It was at the RNC last summer where he met Sugar Grove resident Jim Gibson, an Emmy- and Grammy-winning singer and entertainer who himself has sung twice for Ronald Reagan at the White House and at special events for Bill Clinton. So he knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in a world where so-called ordinary and celebrity co-mingle.
The two struck up a friendship almost immediately, according to both men, one that has grown in the months leading up to Monday’s inauguration that returned Trump to the White House.
For Macchio, whose star will no doubt rise even higher after this kind of global exposure, the mentorship Gibson provides is invaluable, he told me in a phone interview from D.C. on Tuesday afternoon.
For one thing, he leaned on Gibson for advice on “sustaining my voice” over the busy inauguration schedule that had him performing at multiple events.
And Macchio also saw the “wisdom” this 72-year-old singer – I have been friends with Jim for years – could provide as “critical for a person like me who is in a growth period.”
“I’ve done a lot of private events but limited nationally telecast events. He has so much experience,” Macchio said of Gibson, who has hosted more than 1,500 live televised events, including Miss USA and Miss Universe. (He and Trump became business associates/friends when Gibson helped the future president purchase the Miss Universe Pageant and was appointed director of pageant affairs).
“Someone with that kind of experience, who has been with people all around the world, is important because for me, it is still relatively new,” noted Macchio. “I’ve just been in these circles for a few years and there is no replacement for decades of experience.”
Being a singer is one thing, both men also concurred. However, succeeding as an entertainer is more difficult, as the music is only one of the tools used to connect to the audience.
Equally important: Because there is so much more competition, “you have to develop relationships that cast a wider net,” Macchio said. “And that’s not something they teach classical singers in a conservatory.”
Gibson insists the tenor needs no help. But there is a lot of “good, bad and ugly” in the entertainment business, he quickly added. “And it is critical to help Chris meet people who will guide him to where he needs to be.”
Macchio is appreciative, describing himself as a person who “will always be a work in progress.”
What got him through those anxious moments as he prepared to enter the Rotunda for the national anthem, he told me, was “leaning on the mental framework” that gave him the strength to perform in other “breakthrough” events, including his Carnegie Hall debut nine years ago and an unexpected encore performance at the White House in 2020.
Acutely aware of the powerful people, including billionaires and former presidents, who had walked that carpet moments earlier at the inauguration and would now be surrounding him, “I drew on that energy … once I was zoned in, like every other performance, I put my heart and soul into it.”
While it was the tenor’s talent “that blew us away” when the two met last summer, “Chris’ humbleness” and “down to Earth” demeanor is what cemented their relationship almost immediately, said Gibson, who returned to his hometown of Aurora in 2000 after living in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., so he and wife Chiann, a Naperville dentist, could raise their family with Midwestern values.
When we spoke on Tuesday afternoon, both singers were taking separate flights to O’Hare – Gibson and his family, including 17-year-old son James, were returning to Sugar Grove after three hectic days in D.C. Macchio, who had performed that morning for the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral, was also heading to Chicago, as he would be a “surprise guest” at Des Plaines Theatre on Wednesday evening.
Macchio, who has been dubbed “America’s tenor,” was also excited about a return trip to the Windy City in October to serve as grand marshal of the 2025 Columbus Day Parade in Chicago, and to be the headline artist at Festa Italiana.
Even as his world has expanded to include so much power, fame and money, Macchio told me he’s committed to staying grounded, to represent the values Americans hold close.
“The only thing that will change,” he quipped, “is my wardrobe budget.”
While it was a political event that drew them together, it becomes obvious the friendship between Macchio and Gibson has been strengthened from a personal commitment to the craft they share.
“I have been given this great opportunity,” noted the tenor.
“I will do anything to help him,” insisted Gibson.
“We talk about the importance of elevating the arts,” Gibson said. “This is his heart. That is my prayer that can start to happen in this country.”
