American Idol Contender Jesse Findling Sings At Massapequa HS: VIDEO

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — The Baldwin Auditorium at Massapequa High School was packed after school Monday to welcome back one of Massapequa’s own: Jesse Findling, the 20-year-old Binghamton College student and top-20 American Idol contestant, returned to his alma mater for a performance and Q&A session with Massapequa high school students.

Findling’s visit began with a Q&A session with music students at the high school, in which he answered questions like his favorite artists, how old he was when he first started singing and whether or not he would join an “American Idol” tour after this season of the show concludes.

After the bell rang, students from across the school were able to enter the auditorium for the main event: A performance, featuring Findling on vocals and Dr. Gina Aspetti, his elementary school music teacher, on the piano. Joining the duo was Sal Nastasi on guitar.

For Aspetti, the chance to perform with Findling 15 years after he had been her student was surreal. The elementary school music teacher did say, however, that Findling had always had a gift for music.

“It’s wild to see him on television and remember that...he was five years-old when I first met him. He always was very musical, since he was very young,” Aspetti said.

Aspetti wasn’t the only one in the crowd Monday who had known Jesse since he was young, either. Jesse’s younger brother, Massapequa sophomore Jack Findling, was at the assembly.

“I just couldn’t stop smiling,” Jack said. “Even during the other rounds [on the show], it’s just pure enjoyment. Just watching him do what he loves is incredible to watch.”

While he was excited to see his brother sing live after watching him on tv for a few weeks, Jack said the performance reminded him of some recently rediscovered family videos from when he and Jesse were young, singing together.

“My dad found videos, a couple of days ago, when I was eight and he was 10, we used to do videos of us singing on a karaoke machine. My dad pretended to be Ryan Seacrest, we would all pretend to be judges…seeing that video the other day, and now seeing this, it’s like his dreams really did come true, no matter what.”

Ironically, Jack said neither he nor Jesse won when they played “American Idol” at home, with their parents posing as Ryan Seacrest and the judges. Instead, he said their older sister, Samantha, took home top prize.

At performance time, Findling kicked off with a song he has already sung on “Idol,” Adele’s “Love in the Dark.”

Second in the running order was Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met,” after which Findling joked with the crowd that he doesn’t always sing sad songs.

Also in Findling’s set list was Daniel Caesar and H.E.R’s hit, “Best Part.”

Finally, he closed with Sienna Spiro’s “Die On This Hill.”

For district administrators, the chance to show Massapequa students where it can lead if they follow their dreams was a valuable one.

“It’s terrific for the kids to see that there’s a pathway for them in the arts, and to see that you can have a student who’s committed to biology, and is interested in doing it, but still has time for his passion," Massapequa Director of Fine and Performing Arts Vincent Green told Patch. "He’s doing shows at school, and he’s performing, and he gets recognized for that, and has an opportunity. It proves that lightning odes strike, and it can strike very close to you.”

For Aspetti, seeing Findling return to Massapequa was a chance to see a completely different person from the five-year-old kid she had taught years ago.

“He was very shy as a young kid, so if you had asked me in elementary school to choose a child who would want to stand and perform in front of millions of people, I would not have chosen him,” Aspetti said. “But he was very talented, musically, always. So I’m proud to see that he took his gift and he found the courage…I’m so proud of him.”

Findling told the crowd at Massapequa High School Monday that they could see him sing again by watching "Idol" Monday night, and could vote on social media, online and over text. Each voting method, Findling said, can be used to submit ten votes.