Sydney student sight-reads La La Land concert after musician falls ill
A 21-year-old University of Sydney student was pulled from the crowd to save a La La Land concert after the orchestra’s keyboardist fell ill.
When the keyboardist in La La Land in Concert fell ill at ICC Sydney, Justin Hurwitz turned to the audience for help and a 21-year-old University of Sydney student from Woollahra walked onto the stage and kept the show moving for about 2,500 people.
The emergency came during the opening night at Darling Harbour Theatre on Saturday, May 30, 2026, as Hurwitz conducted and performed his Oscar-winning score with a full orchestra and jazz ensemble. He said the sick musician could not continue and that finding a replacement locally would have taken about 15 to 20 minutes, long enough to disrupt the performance. Hurwitz said he asked several times whether anyone in the crowd could truly sight-read and handle unfamiliar key signatures before Sterling Nasa volunteered after a friend urged him to step up.
Nasa, who plays piano and organ and also tutors bagpipes, was brought onstage for the second half without rehearsal. He sat down at the celesta, an instrument he had never played before, and joined the score as the film played on. The concert format synchronized the 2016 movie starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone with live musicians, part of a touring production built around the film’s music.
Hurwitz later described Nasa’s playing as remarkable and said he was impressed as soon as Nasa started. For Nasa, the toughest passage was the synth solo in Start a Fire, a test that put the student’s reading skills under the same pressure that professional orchestral musicians face whenever a live show breaks script.
That is the hidden machinery of major concert productions. The audience sees a sudden rescue and hears a story of luck and composure; musicians see the part of the job that is drilled into conservatories and orchestra pits, where sight-reading, quick substitutions and nerve under pressure can decide whether a performance recovers or collapses.
La La Land in Concert is scheduled to run in Sydney on May 30 and 31, 2026, with Hurwitz leading the orchestra and jazz band through the film’s score. For one night at Darling Harbour Theatre, the backup plan was not a hired standby but a student from the stalls who could read the music fast enough to save the moment.
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