Composer and guitarist Oren Velasquez Hirtenstein (b. 2000) graduated from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a first in Composition (BMus) in 2023.
Growing up in Cornwall, Oren began playing piano at seven and the guitar at nine. He was admitted to the performance course in South West Music School at thirteen, before transitioning to the Composer strand the next year, studying with Graham Lynch (2015-2019).
In 2017, he was accepted into Martin Reading Foundation for young composers, studying with Matthew Taylor, and was again successful in 2018. His pieces were performed at the Martin Reed Festival. On Somme was also performed at The Grange with Jonathan Dove. His composition for piano and clarinet was performed at Borough New Music (2018).
Oren began his Bachelor’s degree in 2019, studying with Andrew Hamilton, Andrew Toovey and Joe Cutler.
His work has been performed and workshoped by Bozzini Quartet (2021), Kevos (2019), Phillip Smith and Nicholas Bosworth (2018), Broncano-Mnich duo (2017), and students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.