A 21-year-old audience member was invited to the stage during a Sydney performance of La La Land In Concert after the orchestra’s keyboardist fell ill in the middle of the concert.

Audience member Maddie Corwin captured the moment on Instagram video. Photo © @maddiecorwin/Instagram via CNN

As the interval hit the 40-minute mark, the film’s Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz, who was conducting the performance, turned to the audience of 2,000 to ask if if anyone in the audience was “an amazing sightreader” and could fill in.

Sitting in the audience, University of Sydney student Sterling Nasa was reluctant to take the call until a friend “sort of put [my] hand up for me,” he told ABC Radio earlier this week. “But I did end up finding the confidence and it was a very good decision to go down and volunteer myself.”

Nasa, who studies politics and international relations at the University of Sydney, plays piano and organ, and also tutors bagpipes at Scots College.

The second half of the performance featured Start A Fire, which features a “really technical” synth solo that would challenge even a professional sight-reader, Hurwitz told The Guardian. So, Nasa decided to improvise instead.

“That is a whole other skill on top of sight-reading. To be able to play a really cool solo in the right key, in the right scale, on the fly with no rehearsal – it was remarkable,” said Hurwitz.

Nasa earned a standing ovation at the close of the track.

La La Land in Concert plays at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, 6–8 June.