A routine concert performance at the Darling Harbor Theatre in Sydney transformed into an extraordinary display of musical talent when an audience member was called upon to replace an ailing professional pianist mid-show.
The live orchestral performance of the La La Land score—played beneath a projection of the film starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling—was proceeding smoothly when the concert pianist became too ill to continue after the interval. As minutes stretched from twenty to thirty and then forty, audience members grew restless, sensing something had gone wrong backstage.
Faced with a crisis and unable to locate a replacement pianist on short notice, Oscar-winning composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz made an unusual decision. He walked onto the stage alone to address the 2,500 attendees with an unprecedented request.
"I figured nobody's as close as they say they are... so I just thought, well, we have 2,500 people in here," Hurwitz told ABC Radio. He asked whether any trained pianist in the audience possessed master sight-reading abilities—a highly specialized skill requiring musicians to perform complex pieces with little or no preparation.
Among the audience sat Sterling Nasa, a bagpipes tutor at Scots College, who had been enjoying the performance with his friend Scarlet. With her encouragement, Nasa eventually raised his hand. Hurwitz, understanding the gravity of what he was asking, posed several follow-up questions to ensure the volunteer comprehended the challenge ahead.
To applause from the crowd, Nasa walked down to the orchestra and took his seat at an electronic piano. Despite having studied piano and organ, he had never performed the La La Land score, which features compositions by John Legend and presents significant technical demands. The pressure was immense—performing complex music before thousands of people with no rehearsal time.
The performance resumed with Nasa filling the crucial piano role. The ultimate test arrived in the form of a synthesizer solo composed by Legend for a scene where the musical notes mirror Ryan Gosling's frantic on-screen movements—a notoriously difficult passage.
"I saw it on the score and I thought, oh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sight-read that in one go," Nasa told ABC Radio. Both he and Hurwitz understood the risk. Like the dreamers portrayed in the film itself, they had to take a leap of faith.
"I took a little bit of a creative liberty and just decided to improvise, which I think ended up being a good choice," Nasa admitted. The decision proved inspired. Hurwitz praised the improvisation as demonstrating an entirely different kind of musical skill, one that captivated the entire hall as audience members witnessed hidden talent emerging from among their own ranks.
Backstage after the final bow, Hurwitz and Nasa shook hands in mutual disbelief. The composer admitted his head was "spinning" from the unexpected turn of events. "Yes, it was a gamble," he acknowledged—but one that paid off spectacularly.
The incident serves as a reminder that extraordinary talent often sits unrecognized in everyday settings, waiting for the right moment to shine. For Nasa, a bagpipes instructor who happened to attend a concert, that moment arrived when circumstance demanded courage and a conductor dared to ask the impossible. The result was a performance that the 2,500 attendees at Darling Harbor Theatre will likely never forget—a real-life echo of the very dreams celebrated in La La Land itself.
