Tom Oren was born November 4, 1994 in Tel Aviv. His mother, Dorly Oren-Chazon, a respected Israeli pianist and composer, started him on classical piano at 6. He trained at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, the Israeli Conservatory of Music with honors, and two years at the Rimon School of Jazz finishing in 2015, then went to Boston on a four-year Berklee College of Music scholarship starting in 2012.

In 2017 he joined saxophonist Eli Degibri's quartet, already profiled on jazzprofiles.com, and has held the piano chair since. In 2018 he won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center, the 30th and final edition under that name before it became the Herbie Hancock Institute in 2019. That year's judging panel included Herbie Hancock, Jason Moran, Danilo Perez, and Renee Rosnes; Oren remains the only Israeli musician to have won the competition. The prize included a $25,000 scholarship and a recording contract with Concord Music.

His debut leader album under that contract, Dorly's Song (Concord Jazz, October 30, 2020), is a tribute record: ten of his own arrangements of songs written by his mother, most composed before he was born, with bassist Barak Mori, drummer Eviatar Slivnik, and a guest tenor sax turn from Eli Degibri.

Between his two jazz albums, Oren co-composed the orchestral score for Image of Victory, director Avi Nesher's 2021 war drama, alongside Randy Kerber, released on Milan Records/Sony Music in 2022. The film received 15 Ophir Award nominations (Israel's national film awards) and won three, for cinematography, makeup, and costume design.

His second jazz album, Dark Lights, was released worldwide on Anat Cohen's Anzic Records on February 20, 2026, a trio session with bassist Elam Friedlander and Eviatar Slivnik again on drums, recorded at Bunker Studios in New York in July 2023: six originals and three arrangements, which Oren has described as the second chapter of his recorded musical journal.

Oren works within a post-bop, contemporary jazz piano tradition, shaped directly by his years alongside saxophonist Eli Degibri. His two leader albums frame him as more interested in personal and narrative material than pure technical display: a Monk Competition winner's Concord Records debut built entirely around his mother's original songs, followed six years later by a trio record recorded well before its release and described as a musical journal rather than a showcase.