World premiere recording of tenor sax concerto “Only Moments to Live” by Emma O’Halloran (BCM&D Records) feat. Matthew Levy w/Temple University Wind Symphony

I’m happy to share news of the release of the world premiere recording of Emma O’Halloran’s new tenor sax concerto Only Moments to Live. I recorded it nearly a year ago with my brilliant colleague Trish Cornett conducting the Temple University Wind Symphony. It is a gentle, breathtakingly beautiful piece that unfolds like a blossoming flower. The work is unique in that Emma entrusts the soloist with improvising/co-composing most of the solo line. I spent 2-3 months living with a midi recording of the band part to test ideas and create a solo that is my own personal response to the theme of mindfulness that inspired the work. Once I felt satisfied with my solo part, I composed a two-minute prelude (for tenor alone) as a kind of index, foreshadowing much of the solo material that follows. The end of the prelude references the final descending motif from Claude Debussy’s iconic solo flute work, Syrinx, which is partly about transformation.

Only Moment to Live is Emma’s response to Kabat-Zinn’s book Full Catastrophe Living which uses the “Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness.” Unbeknownst to Emma, I read Full in 2013 while recovering from a serious case of pneumonia that landed me in the hospital and involved several months of recovery. So the piece hit home in a way I had not anticipated.

I wanted to thank Emma for making an essential contribution to the repertoire, and my wonderful collaborators Trish and members of the Temple Wind Symphony for their artistry. Thanks also to producer/engineer David Pasbrig, executive producer Dean Robert Stroker, and members of the consortium who co-commissioned the work. I can’t wait to hear what they do with it! The project was a labor of love. Read all about it and check out the trailer below!

Matt

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Adapted from an article in Temple Now.

Temple University Boyer College of Music & Dance announces the release of the world premiere recording of Only Moments to Live, a concerto for tenor saxophone and wind ensemble by 2026 Grammy Award nominee Emma O’Halloran. The recording features Boyer College of Music & Dance faculty member Matthew Levy as soloist with the Temple Wind Symphony under Dr. Patricia Cornett. Only Moments to Live drops on March 13, 2026 on Temple University’s in-house label, BCM&D Records.

In her program note, O’Halloran writes that the work’s title was inspired by a quote from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s groundbreaking book “Full Catastrophe Living” attributed to Nadine Stair, an eighty-five year old from Louisville, Kentucky: “Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.”

O’Halloran continues, “Over the past few years, it’s become increasingly important to me to slow down and cultivate presence in this fast-paced world. By integrating mindfulness practices into my daily life, I’m learning how to manage pain and anxiety, and to be fully present to good moments as well as the bad, and my life feels richer for it. This is what this piece is about. The music is a sort of dance between the soloist and the band. The soloist plays gestures that are picked and expanded on by different instruments, and then there are improvisational sections where the soloist listens to the group and responds. It requires everyone being fully present in the moment and every performance of this piece will be a little bit different. I hope you enjoy the moment!”

Only Moments to Live came about when Cornett approached Levy about soloing with the Temple Wind Symphony. Levy proposed commissioning a new tenor saxophone concerto from O’Halloran, with whom he first crossed paths in 2014 in Princeton, New Jersey. O’Halloran was a doctoral student at Princeton University were she composed a piece for Levy’s PRISM Quartet, then in residence with the school’s composition department. The resulting piece, Night Music, has since become a staple of saxophone quartet repertoire and is performed by groups around the world. O’Halloran subsequently composed a solo electro-acoustic work for Levy, Sum of its Parts, and is now composing a concerto grosso (a concerto with multiple soloists) for PRISM Quartet with full orchestra. 

“Emma is a composer I’ve come back to time and time again,” Levy said. “She is a singular voice who marries lots of really interesting kinds of music, from Latin inspired grooves to abstract electronic ambiance. There’s a post-minimalist quality to her work that is rooted in repetition but invariably evolves into something unexpected and extraordinary.” 

Levy brought together a consortium with 14 other top saxophonists and their affiliated institutions, who funded the commissioned piece and each now has a chance to perform it following last March’s world premiere at Temple University. 

“Because of Emma’s relationship with Matt, she’s been able to write a piece that plays into his strengths,” Cornett added. “There’s a lot of improvisation in this piece, which not every classical saxophonist is going to necessarily be comfortable with. But that is also the beauty of Only Moments to Live, a concerto that asks each soloist to co-create their own distinct part.”

O’Halloran was on campus the week leading up to the March 2025 premiere and recording session, where she worked directly with Levy, Cornett and the wind symphony. “There’s nothing like having a living composer in the room interacting with the students and giving live, real-time feedback about what they hear,” Cornett said. “Band does not have the hundreds of years of repertoire that orchestra or choir have, but what we do have is a living, breathing connection to new music that is really gratifying.”

Credits

Executive Producer and BCM+D RECORDS Founder: Robert Stroker
Executive Producer, Producer, and Lead Engineer: David Pasbrig
Assistant Engineers: Isaac Kraus, Abby Almas, Jack Heroux-Skirbst
Editing: David Pasbrig, Matthew Levy
Mixing/Mastering: David Pasbrig
Artwork/Design: Greg Gonyea
Recorded March 15, 2025 at Temple Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia
 
Acknowledgements
Only Moments to Live was commissioned by a consortium led by Matthew Levy, Patricia Cornett, and Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance. Other consortium members included:

Timothy McAllister, Dr. Courtney Snyder, and the University of Michigan Concert Band; Zachary Shemon and the University of Missouri-Kansas City; Joseph Lulloff and Michigan State University; Brandon Quarles, Dr. Nicholas Williams, and the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble; Carrie Koffman, James Jackson, and The Hartt Wind Ensemble of The Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, University of Hartford; Andrew Hosler; Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Dr. Matthew Westgate, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Wind Ensemble; Kathleen Mitchell, Dr. Eric Laprade, and the College of New Jersey Wind Ensemble; Stacy Wilson; Doug O’Connor, Dr. Harlan Parker, and the Peabody Institute Wind Ensemble; Nick Zoulek; Joe Girard, Dr. Jamie Nix, and the Schwob Wind Ensemble Columbus State University, Georgia; Matthew Koester, Dr. Corey Pompey, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Concert Band, the Mead Witter School of Music; Jackson David Thorpe and Georgia State University.