January 30, 2026 By Hingham Anchor Community Editor, Erin Blake Elefante
Walking into Christmas Eve service at Hingham Congregational Church, my family and I settled into our pew and opened the program. We noticed that a soloist, Nick Capodilupo, would be performing two songs—including my favorite, “O Holy Night.” When he stood to sing, his powerful and moving rendition brought many in the audience to tears.
Curious to learn more about the talented vocalist from our own town, we searched his name online. The first result was a video of Nick, dressed in his Ithaca College football jersey, singing the National Anthem before a game. It was immediately clear there was a deeper story behind this gifted Hingham resident.
Nick graciously agreed to meet with me over Zoom from McGill University in Montreal, where he is currently earning a master’s degree in performance, with a focus on classical music and opera. From the start of our conversation, his passion for music was unmistakable.
Born and raised in Hingham, Nick grew up with his mother, Dana, brothers Dan and John, and sister Anna. He attended East Elementary School, but it was at Hingham Middle School where his musical journey truly began. In sixth grade, he signed up for the school musical under then–HMS drama teacher Maureen Fish (now at Hingham High School). Because sixth graders did not audition, Nick joined the ensemble—and was instantly hooked.
Soon after, he joined the choir, where HMS choir director Christopher Landis (also now at Hingham High School) encouraged him to continue pursuing music. By seventh and eighth grade, Nick was earning featured roles in school productions, even before developing the commanding voice he is known for today. “I had this high-pitched voice,” Nick laughs. “Singing that high now would strain my voice.”
When Nick entered high school, he briefly questioned whether to continue chorus due to the increased time commitment and more serious repertoire. Once again, Mr. Landis encouraged him to stay. Freshman year marked his first exposure to classical music. “I could sing it, but I didn’t know if I liked it,” he recalled. Still, alongside his older brother John, who was also enrolled, Nick stuck with it.
He auditioned for—and was accepted into—Junior Chorale Spectrum and Jazz Spectrum, later competing at the district level and narrowly missing qualification for All- State as a freshman. That was when he realized, “This is something I enjoy, and something I might actually be good at.” Under choir director Joe Young, Nick was encouraged not only to sing well, but to become a strong musician—learning the discipline, mechanics, and theory behind vocal performance.
By sophomore year, Nick had fully “caught the classical music bug.” Sight-reading and count-singing evolved from choir exercises into foundational college-level training. Performing major works by Vivaldi, Brahms, and Mendelssohn solidified his belief that classical music was both inspiring and attainable. “Our choir was phenomenal,” he said proudly, crediting strong leadership and a remarkably talented peer group. Repertoire typically reserved for college choirs of 30 to 40 singers was being successfully performed by just 22 high school musicians.
With the support of his mother, Nick began studying with vocal coach Randy McGee, expanding into multilingual classical repertoire. He embraced challenging works in French, Italian, German, and other languages, putting in the demanding hours required to master them. He went on to attend Ithaca College, graduating with a degree in vocal performance.
Nick remains in close contact with the teachers who shaped his path—mentors who encouraged him to keep going, even when balancing another demanding passion: football.
His passion for football also began in middle school. Due to Hingham’s youth football weight limits, Nick played in Weymouth, where he developed a love for the sport and lasting friendships. At first, he kept his musical pursuits private, unsure how his teammates would react—until the eighth-grade end-of-season banquet. There, he told them, “Boys, I gotta tell you something. I do musicals, and I love musicals.” Their response? “Well, are you good?” After seeing videos and confirming that he was, indeed, good, his teammates embraced and respected him for it.
By ninth grade, football and the fall musical overlapped. When Nick approached his coaches and drama teacher about doing both, they supported him wholeheartedly, as long as he honored each commitment. He recalls sprinting out of rehearsal, down the hallway, through the locker room, grabbing his jersey, and running onto the field just in time to snap the ball as center. “It felt like something out of a movie,” he said. The 14- hour days were exhausting but deeply fulfilling.
One of Nick’s most memorable high school performances came sophomore year when he played Mary Sunshine—the comedic, cross-dressing reporter—in Chicago. After mentioning the role to his team, Nick was stunned when nearly 50 players and coaches, led by Coach Chris Arouca, packed the auditorium. “I loved it,” he said. “It bridged then gap between athletics and the arts.”
Nick talks a lot about this connection between sports and music, and it clearly brings him joy. Nick began singing the National Anthem at wrestling matches, which led to invitations from basketball and lacrosse teams, community events, and eventually the MIAA basketball playoffs in Taunton. He went on to sing the anthem in full football pads before Ithaca College football games.
His career reached an even larger stage when he performed at Yankee Stadium before a major college rivalry game. After seeing the video, the Yankees invited him to sing before a Yankees–Red Sox matchup that same year, where a Green Beret sergeant throwing the first pitch recruited him years later to sing the National Anthem at the Special Operations Forces Conference in Tampa last May.
Since then, Nick has regularly performed the anthem for the Boston Celtics, including singing both the American and Canadian national anthems before a Celtics–Raptors game in October. Despite his growing résumé, his excitement remains genuine. “It’s still just so cool to sing for my home team,” he said, smiling. While you don’t often think of football players and classical singers in the same category, according to Nick they are quite similar. “You have to put a lot of practice and preparation into both things. You have to be able to perform really well under pressure, be able to work with groups of people to achieve one common goal. You have to be able to adapt and change depending on what’s happening – if someone forgets their line on stage or someone misses a block on the field. To get a rhythm of a song that’s challenging or practice your blocking scheme – to get really good at one part you have to do the same thing over and over again. It’s all really similar when you put it down to the core aspects of it and they really do translate.”
After 14 years of football, Nick has now exhausted his athletic eligibility. Though he misses the camaraderie of the team, he is grateful for the newfound time to focus fully on his music career. At McGill, he is studying French, Italian, and German to refine his command of classical vocal performance in those languages. He is currently applying to summer programs in Europe and hopes to audition internationally as his career evolves. “My main goal is to know exactly what I’ll be doing 1-3 years in advance. I would do anything – musicals, opera, plays, concerts. Ideally operas in the fall and winter and recitals in the spring.”
Driven, humble, immensely talented, and deeply grateful, Nick repeatedly credited his teachers, coaches, mentors, and above all, his mother. Each time he spoke of her support, his face lit up.
The future is bright for this Hingham native, and our community looks forward to cheering him on as he continues to thrive. You can follow his journey on Instagram @ncaptenor
