{"id":455444,"date":"2026-06-01T12:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455444\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:54:20","slug":"is-there-a-pianist-in-the-house-audience-member-steps-up-to-perform-in-la-la-land-in-sydney-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455444\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a pianist in the house? Audience member steps up to perform in La La Land in Sydney | Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

La La Land is a much adored homage to Hollywood<\/a>, where dreamers take chances and seize unexpected moments.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night at the ICC\u2019s Darling Harbour theatre, that idea became a reality for a 21-year-old university student who was thrust into the spotlight at a live performance of the movie\u2019s score \u2013 and saved a concert from derailment.<\/p>\n

Sterling Nasa was in the audience at La La Land in Concert, a touring production where the movie \u2013 which features Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone \u2013 is projected on to a screen while a live orchestra plays the musical score in synchronisation with the film.<\/p>\n

The performance proceeded normally until the interval, which stretched out to 40 minutes. Then the film\u2019s Oscar-winning composer and conductor, Justin Hurwitz, walked out alone to address the audience.<\/p>\n

The orchestra\u2019s keyboardist had suddenly fallen ill. Was there by any chance a pianist in the house? And one with exceptional sight-reading skills?<\/p>\n

Speaking to Guardian Australia on Monday, Hurwitz revealed that behind the scenes, quiet panic had set in during that extended interval.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first thought was, is there a string player who also knows keyboard? The answer was no.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the orchestra\u2019s musicians frantically phoned local contacts, offers started rolling in of backup players who were 15 to 20 minutes away. But Hurwitz knew time had run out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured nobody\u2019s as close as they say they are \u2026 so I just thought, well, we have 2,500 people in here \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was a gamble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I asked a few times. I wanted to make sure that somebody wasn\u2019t just overly confident. I asked a couple of follow-up questions like, \u2018Are you sure? Can you really sight-read? Can you play key signatures you\u2019ve never played before?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Nasa, who plays piano and organ and is the bagpipes tutor at his old school, Scots College, hesitated when the call went out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit tentative,\u201d the University of Sydney<\/a> politics and international studies student told ABC Radio on Monday morning. \u201cI do owe a lot of the experience to my friend, Scarlett, who sort of \u2026 put my hand up for me. But I did end up finding the confidence and it was a very good decision to go down and volunteer myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A longtime admirer of Hurwitz\u2019s work, Nasa suddenly found himself sitting at an electric keyboard, staring at a complex score he had never rehearsed.<\/p>\n

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 Gosling\u2019s character on screen. It was the exact moment Hurwitz was most nervous about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe synth solo is really technical, and I thought, even a really high-level professional sight-reader would probably not be able to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cAs it was coming up, I was thinking, \u2018Oh no, how\u2019s he going to be able to handle the solo?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasa told the ABC he was thinking the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it on the score and I thought, oh, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be able to sight-read that in one go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like Gosling\u2019s jazz-pianist character Sebastian, the student had to decide whether to stay in the shadows or take a monumental leap of faith. With no time to overthink, he chose to trust his instincts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a little bit of a creative liberty and just decided to improvise, which I think ended up being a good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gamble paid off, carrying the orchestra through the number \u2013 and earning Nasa a resounding ovation from the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw it coming up \u2026 and he just improvised,\u201d Hurwitz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a whole other skill on top of sight-reading. To be able to play a really cool solo in the right key, in the right scale, on the fly with no rehearsal \u2013 it was remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backstage debrief after the final bow was full of mutual disbelief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told him how blown away I was, and obviously how thankful I was,\u201d Hurwitz said. \u201cAll of our heads were spinning a little bit because it was such a surreal moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Monday morning, the 21-year-old was experiencing a different kind of whirlwind, being ferried between breakfast television and radio studios to recount his sudden taste of showbiz fame.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the incredible turn of events, Nasa said it was an unforgettable privilege to play a soundtrack he had loved for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a blessing to get to play a work that I\u2019m in such admiration of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the production team is now scrambling to rehearse new keyboardists for the upcoming Melbourne and Brisbane legs of the tour, Nasa will be heading back to his regular university lectures.<\/p>\n

But has the student missed his calling in life?<\/p>\n

Hurwitz said that while the young Sydneysider certainly has the talent for a career in music, the choice is ultimately his to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s most passionate about,\u201d Hurwitz said. \u201cMaybe he likes international relations a little more than music. But that\u2019s what La La Land is about. You\u2019ve got to do what you love the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

La La Land in Concert will play at the ICC Sydney on Monday, at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on Wednesday and at the Hamer Hall in Melbourne from Friday 6 to 8 June<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La La Land is a much adored homage to Hollywood, where dreamers take chances and seize unexpected moments.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-455444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}