‘A top night’: How a 21-year-old audience member saved an Oscar winner’s La La Land concert

It’s a classic underdog dream: being in the audience for a play, football match or concert, then, when someone gets sick, being called up and performing brilliantly.

It happened to Sterling Nasa, a 21-year-old university student, on the opening night of Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz’s La La Land in Concert in Sydney on Saturday night.

Until interval it was shaping as an outstanding performance by the American composer-conductor’s Australian orchestra and jazz band at the 2500-seat Darling Harbour Theatre.

But after an awkwardly long break, Hurwitz, who won best original score and song at the Oscars for La La Land a decade ago, came on stage to say that one of the musicians was too sick to continue. He asked if there was an amazing keyboard player in the audience who could sight-read.

Deep in the audience, Nasa was urged by his friend Scarlett to volunteer.

“She just said, ‘just do it, it’ll be good dad lore’,” he said. “I thought, ‘she’s right’, so put my hand up.”

What followed, after a grateful Hurwitz called Nasa on stage, with the audience buzzing about the unexpected development, could have been from the script of La La Land, the meta musical romance between a jazz musician (played by Ryan Gosling) and an aspiring actress (Emma Stone).

Nasa learnt he was to play the celeste, also known as a bell-piano, for the first time. He said Hurwitz thanked him, asked how he was feeling, then passed him on to the sound technicians and keyboard programmers to set up for the second half. Within 90 seconds of arriving on stage, it was under way.

After a nervous first 10 minutes, Nasa felt he could hold his own. He says he thought, “just stay focused, try your best, you’re not completely out of your depth”.

With Nasa distinctive for being the only musician in a white shirt, the audience applauded enthusiastically when he featured. During a break for the celeste, he flipped ahead of the book to try to learn what was coming up.

“The only one that caught me a little bit off guard was the synth solo in the [John Legend song] Start a Fire,” Nasa said. “It’s a very technical solo that Ryan Gosling plays … I saw it on the page and I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to sight-read this’, so I took the liberty and just completely improvised the solo.”

Nasa imagined improvising was what Gosling’s character would have wanted him to do.

Hurwitz later admitted that he was glad: “He said, ‘I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to do it or, worst case, that you’d just stop playing and there wouldn’t be a synth solo’.”

When the concert finished, there was a thunderous ovation for Hurwitz and the orchestra, with special applause for the night’s accidental star. Backstage, the other musicians were grateful he had stepped in.

“It was very nice to meet Justin, who was very kind, very appreciative,” Nasa said. “I got to chat with him very briefly and got a few photos.”

The night was not over, though. As he left, fans asked Nasa to sign programs and be in selfies. When he arrived home in Woollahra, he told his parents and showed them a video that Scarlett had taken. “They thought it was pretty funny,” he said.

Until Saturday night the high point of Nasa’s performing experience was singing in a 2024 amateur production of Jersey Boys before studies for his arts degree in politics and international relations took over. As well as piano, he plays organ and teaches bagpipes at his old school, Scots College.

On Sunday morning, as La La Land In Concert moved on to more performances in Sydney then Melbourne’s Hamer Hall next weekend, Nasa was back on a more modest stage. He was playing piano at his local church and trying to keep the La La Land experience in perspective.

“It was really, really fun,” he said. “It’s one of my favourite movies. I was happy just sitting in the audience, let alone with what happened. It was going to be a good night either way.”

Nasa also felt grateful he could be of service to keep the show going, especially given the calibre of the company he was keeping on stage.

“That’s the most important thing. People have paid a lot of money, it’s their Saturday night, they want to go see something good. It would suck if it was tainted,” he said.

All in all, “it was a top night”.

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