Inside the Aug. 1 live orchestra performance at the Greek Theatre.
The applause at the Greek Theatre Saturday night wasn’t just for La La Land — but for a pianist the audience didn’t know they had come to hear.
Ten years after Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winning musical premiered, audiences gathered beneath the stars to celebrate the film with La La Land in Concert, featuring Academy Award-winning composer Justin Hurwitz conducting a live orchestra and jazz ensemble performing the beloved score in sync with the film.
But before the music began, Hurwitz shared with the audience that one of the things he loves most about the concert is its unpredictability.
“The show is never the same twice. It’s one of the things I love about the show,” he said.
What followed proved exactly that.
Hurwitz introduced 21-year-old Sterling Nasa, an Australian university student whose remarkable journey from audience member to concert pianist felt almost too fitting for a film built around chasing impossible dreams.
Just months earlier, Nasa attended La La Land in Concert in Sydney as a fan. During intermission, the production’s keyboardist had to leave, forcing Hurwitz to ask the audience an unlikely question: Could anyone sight-read the score?
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Nasa volunteered.
Despite never having performed the music before, he stepped onto the stage and finished the concert alongside the orchestra.
“Having never played that music before, he blew everybody away,” Hurwitz recalled.
The experience left a lasting impression on the composer.
“I got to thinking about it, and I found I was very moved by what had happened,” Hurwitz said. “In a lot of ways, it was like the story of La La Land. You have this kid who is in school studying something that is not music. He’s not studying music because he doesn’t know he has what it takes to do it. Then there’s this opportunity, and he takes it, and he shows everybody — and himself — that he can do it.”
Credit: Yeva Ohanjanyan
Rather than letting that extraordinary moment end in Sydney, Hurwitz decided to give Nasa an even bigger stage.
“So I kept wanting to encourage Sterling by giving him a bigger stage,” Hurwitz explained. “So I invited him here tonight, where he is playing his first-ever full — not half — concert. Sterling Nasa.”
As the audience erupted in applause, Nasa took his place behind the keyboard — not as the emergency substitute who unexpectedly saved a concert months ago, but as a featured member of the production for one of the film’s biggest anniversary celebrations.
For a movie that has always championed ambition, perseverance and saying “yes” before knowing exactly where the opportunity will lead, Nasa’s story became something more than an introduction.
It became a real-life continuation of La La Land itself.
Credit: Yeva Ohanjanyan
While audiences watched Sebastian chase his dream on the screen overhead, another young pianist was quietly living out his own just below it.
Ten years after La La Land reminded audiences that extraordinary opportunities often arrive without warning, the Greek Theatre offered proof that its message still resonates — not just in the music, but in the lives it continues to inspire.