21-year-old university student, Sterling Nasa, was settled in his seat at the ICC in Darling Harbour for the grand performance of Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz’s live-to-film production when the unthinkable happened. After an interval of the show, the award-winning American composer-conductor took to the stage with an unexpected hiccup - one of his musicians, the keyboard player, was too sick to continue the show. “Anybody an amazing sight reader?” he asked the audience. Sight reading, also known as “Prima Vista” is the ability to look at a sheet of music and play it in real time without any practice. It’s a rare and impressive skill, which is why the composer was thrilled to see someone pop up from the audience and head down to the stage to give it a go.
Knowing he could, Nasa’s friend encouraged him 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,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald. After a brief meeting in front of the crowd, Horwitz introduced Nasa to his instrument for the evening - the celeste, also known as a bell-piano. After just over a minute, the show was underway, with the crowd fully behind their brave volunteer. “The only one that caught me a little bit off guard was the synth solo in the [John Legend song] Start a Fire,” he admitted. “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.” It was a gamble that paid off for the keen muso, whose biggest gigs have been playing at his local church and teaching the bag pipes at his old school Scotts College, earning praise from the composer and a thunderous applause from the audience. “It was really, really fun,” he told SMH. “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.” The moment was described as “the most insane concert experience” by an audience member who shared a clip of the call-up on social media. “I was there in the audience! Yes it was real! He definitely killed it!!” one person commented. “Every single muso has dreamed of this happening to them,” another added.
And another agreed it was a great, teachable moment: “This will inspire a kid to learn now - you just never know when your chance will come!” Others described Nasa as an “instant legend” and “the main character” - much like a doctor called up on a flight when a patient falls sick. No doubt, a little more interesting to listen to.