Audience member steps up to perform in La La Land in Sydney
A 21-year-old student’s impromptu performance saved a Sydney show after the scheduled musician fell ill, earning praise from composer Justin Hurwitz.
Sterling Nasa, a 21-year-old University of Sydney student, found himself on stage at the ICC Darling Harbour theatre on Saturday night, replacing the ill keyboardist for Justin Hurwitz’s La La Land in Concert. The substitution occurred after the original musician fell ill during the interval, prompting composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz to address the audience of approximately 2,500 people. Hurwitz requested a pianist with exceptional sight-reading skills to ensure the performance could proceed.
The interval stretched to 40 minutes as the orchestra attempted to find a replacement. Backup players were offered who were 15 to 20 minutes away, but Hurwitz determined they would not arrive in time. Behind the scenes, quiet panic set in as the team realised no string players in the orchestra also knew keyboard. Hurwitz decided to ask the audience directly, ensuring that any volunteer was genuinely confident in their ability to sight-read key signatures they had never played before.
Nasa, who plays piano and organ and is the bagpipes tutor at his former school, Scots College, hesitated when the call went out. He admitted to being tentative until his friend Scarlett put his name forward. The University of Sydney politics and international studies student found the confidence to volunteer and sat at an electric keyboard, staring at a complex score he had never rehearsed.
The ultimate test came during the performance of the John Legend piece Start a Fire, which features an intricate synthesiser solo designed to match the erratic hand movements of Ryan Gosling’s character on screen. Hurwitz had expressed nervousness about this section, noting that even a high-level professional might struggle with it. Nasa, seeing the complexity of the score, decided to take creative liberty and improvise rather than attempt to sight-read the entire part in one go.
The gamble paid off, carrying the orchestra through the number and earning Nasa a resounding ovation. Hurwitz praised Nasa’s ability to improvise in the correct key and scale on the fly with no rehearsal as remarkable. By Monday morning, Nasa was appearing on breakfast television and radio studios to recount the event, while the production team sought new keyboardists for the upcoming Melbourne and Brisbane legs of the tour.