email: info@ohljazz.com
Oren Levine plays piano and writes songs
Oren Levine grew up with a love of music, especially jazz, inherited from his father. He started piano lessons as an eight-year-old in Washington, DC, and continued to play while earning two engineering degrees and building a career as an engineer and technology manager. He wrote his first song at age 45 in a summer jazz workshop in Vermont and released his first album of original songs, “Making Up For Lost Time,” in 2018.
His song “Let’s Wander” from the album won him the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Alan and Marilyn Bergman Lyric Award. The title track won a Finalist award in the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.
Oren continues to write songs and play jazz on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands and other venues around the US. His performances deliver positive, relaxed, swinging music rooted in the jazz tradition. He headlined a show at Washington’s legendary Blues Alley club on May 27, 2025 to celebrate the release of his latest project, the EP “Grown Up Since Tuesday.”
Oren’s songs have also been performed and recorded by Aaron Myers, Carolyn Malachi, Lionel Lyles, Tony Gudell, Barbara Papendorp, Donna Singer, and the DC-based funk/hip-hop band The Lucky So & Sos.
Oren joined ASCAP in 2009 and was admitted as a voting member of the Recording Academy in 2023.
Featured videos
Selected discography
Grown Up Since Tuesday (2025): Tony Gudell sings three new songs about growing up, growing old, and getting away from it all.
Making Up For Lost Time (2018): A collection of eleven original songs featuring some of the DC area’s finest musicians.
Bend Don’t Break (feat. Khadijo and Francillia) (2022): From Groove Park, a tribute to the resilience and tenacity of the palm trees of the Caribbean
Island In The Sea (feat. Aaron Myers) (2022): From the Groove Park project, a song with a 1970’s R&B groove about escaping to a tropical island with the one you love.
Ain’t It The Truth (feat. Carolyn Malachi) (2020): A lament about the spread of false news with a message of hope for overcoming it
Aaron Myers: Snowing In Vegas (2015): Includes my originals Hanukkah Light, Snow Day, and Stand Right.
Press
Getting Jazzy With Oren Levine (Dec. 11, 2019)
Stand Right, Walk Left: The Smooth Swing Of Subway Etiquette (Jan. 3, 2016)
A D.C. jazz duo created a song about Metro escalator etiquette (Dec. 1, 2015)
Awards
Participating librettist in the 2024 Composer-Librettist Studio conducted by the Alliance for New Music-Theatre and Nautilus Music-Theater
2023 ASCAP Foundation Alan and Marilyn Bergman Lyric Award for “Let’s Wander“
39th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest Finalist award (Vocal Jazz/Blues) for “Are You Out Of Your Mind“
38th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest Honorable Mention (Vocal Jazz/Blues) for “Don’t Get Mad Get Swinging“
36th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest Finalist award (Vocal Jazz/Blues) for “Making Up For Lost Time“
Photos
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 