How a 21-year-old audience member, Sterling Nasa, saved Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz’s La La Land concert
Garry Maddox
It’s a classic underdog’s dream: being in the audience at a play, football match or concert, then being called in when someone gets sick and giving a great performance.
The incident happened to 21-year-old college student Sterling NASA at the opening night of Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz. La La Land at the concert Saturday night in Sydney.
By December it was shaping up to be a spectacular performance by the American composer-conductor’s Australian orchestra and jazz band at the 2,500-seat Darling Harbor Theatre.
But after a strangely long hiatus, Hurwitz won best original score and song at the Oscars. La La Land Ten years ago, he came on stage and said one of the musicians was too ill to continue. He asked if there was a great keyboardist in the audience who could sight-read.
Her friend Scarlett, in the audience, encouraged Nasa to volunteer.
“He just said, ‘Do it, it’ll be good information for your father,'” he said. “‘He’s right,’ I thought, so I raised my hand.”
What happened after a grateful Hurwitz called NASA onto the stage and the audience grumbled about this unexpected development could have been from the film’s script. La La Landa meta-musical romance between a jazz musician (starring Ryan Gosling) and an avid gamer (Emma Stone).
NASA has learned that it will play Celeste, also known as the bell piano, for the first time. He said Hurwitz thanked him, asked how he felt, and then passed it along to the sound technicians and keyboard programmers to prepare the second half. 90 seconds after he got on stage, the action started.
After the tense first 10 minutes, Nasa felt like he could hold himself together. “Just focus, do the best you can, and you won’t be completely over the top,” he says.
The artist, who stands out as the only NASA musician wearing a white shirt, took the stage and was applauded enthusiastically by the audience. During a break from Celeste, she flipped over to the book to find out what was going to happen.
“The only thing that caught me a little off guard was the synth solo in the scene. [John Legend song] Start a fireNasa said: “It’s a very technical solo that Ryan Gosling plays… I saw it on the page and thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to decipher this,’ so I took liberties and completely improvised the solo.”
Nasa imagined improvising what Gosling’s character would ask him to do.
Hurwitz later admitted he was pleased: “‘I was worried he wouldn’t be able to do it, or at worst he’d stop playing and there wouldn’t be a synth solo,’ he said.”
When the concert ended, Hurwitz and the orchestra applauded with great enthusiasm, while special applause was also heard for the coincidentally star of the night. Backstage, other musicians were grateful for his involvement.
“It was great to meet Justin, who was so kind and grateful,” Nasa said. “I chatted with him very briefly and took a few photos.”
But the night wasn’t over. As he was leaving, fans asked NASA to sign programs and take selfies. When he arrived home in Woollahra he told his family and showed them a video Scarlett had taken. “They thought it was pretty funny,” he said.
The high point of NASA’s performance experience until Saturday night was singing in a 2024 amateur production. Jersey Men before taking over his studies for an arts degree in politics and international relations. As well as the piano, he plays the organ and teaches bagpipes at his former school, Scots College.
On Sunday morning, NASA returned to a more low-key scene — playing the piano at its local church — and trying to maintain that atmosphere. La La Land experience in perspective.
“It was really fun,” he said. “One of my favorite movies. I was happy sitting in the audience, let alone what was happening. Either way, it was going to be a good night.”
NASA was also grateful that it could help keep the show going, especially given the quality of the ensemble it kept on stage.
“That’s the most important thing. People paid a lot of money, it’s their Saturday night, they want to go and see something beautiful. It would be awful if it was tarnished,” he said.
All in all, “it was a very good night”.
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