Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
During interval at the Sydney orchestral performance the keyboard player suddenly fell ill. A local student stepped up to fill in with no notice.
When a keyboard player was too sick to finish a live performance at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Theater on Saturday night, a call was put out the audience.
“Anybody who’s an amazing sight reader? Who can sight read. OK, you want to join us?” asked La La Land in Concert composer, Justin Hurwitz.
21-year-old university student Sterling Nasa stepped up to the stage.
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La La Land in Concert was playing in Sydney; where an audience watches the Oscar award winning film accompanied by a live orchestra and jazz band performing the soundtrack, conducted by the film’s Oscar-winning composer.
When the keyboardist for the orchestra fell ill mid-performance, Hurwitz put out the plea and Nasa went from one of the 2000 audience members to part of the band after the interval.
“It was a pretty crazy night”, Nasa told RNZ’s Afternoons.
“They just said they were looking for someone who could sight-read and someone who was confident enough in sight-reading and playing the keyboard.
“And I’ve been playing for most of my life and I thought, well, you know, this is a good opportunity.”
Sight reading means the musician must be able to play the music purely from the score.
While admittedly “quite nervous”, Nasa thought to himself: “It’s an hour of music. It’s an amazing orchestra and amazing conductor. Just try your best”.
Hurwitz greeted Nasa and handed over the keyboard tech.
“He set me up with an in-ear and showed me the rough ropes of what I was going to be doing. And honestly, within about two minutes of walking on stage, the second act started and I was playing.”
It all went well, though he hit a stumbling block when it came to the John Legend song ‘Start a Fire’.
“There’s this very lengthy synthesiser solo that is sort of meant to mimic exactly what Ryan Gosling is playing in the film.
“And it’s this heavily notated, very technical solo. And I sort of turned the page, saw it on the sheet music and thought, look, there’s no way I’m going to be able to play that correctly in one go.
“A little bit of creative liberty and maybe just a little bit of ego. I thought, you know, I’ll just improvise something. That’ll be all right, surely.”
His improvised lines went down well with the composer, he says.
“We chatted about it at the end. He said, ‘I’m actually glad that’s what you did with the solo because I was worried you’d make a mistake or worse … that you’d stop playing and that there wouldn’t be a solo at all’.”
For most of the concert he was focused on the job, he says.
“There was one number towards the end where my part didn’t have anything to play. So, I got a few minutes really just to sit around and just take it all in and be present, that was a nice part of it.”
It was a “very fun and crazy experience” he says and insists no orchestrated publicity stunt.
“No, it really wasn’t. It really wasn’t”.
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