Award-winning composer Han Hitchen (b. 1997) writes music informed by his experiences as a transgender and nonbinary man living in the United States. Many of his works draw inspiration from socially taboo topics that Han hopes to bring attention to, such as menstruation cycles, family discourse, death/mortality, and reproductive rights. He writes for a wide range of settings, including various acoustic and electronic setups.

Hitchen’s music has been presented at several events, including the Penn State New-Music Festival and Symposium, June in Buffalo, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Osaka University of Arts Electroacoustic Music Festival, MUSLAB’s International Exhibition of Electroacoustic Music, Electroacoustic Barn Dance (EABD), Electronic Music Midwest (EMM), and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF). His music has been performed throughout the United States, as well as Ecuador, South Korea, Japan, and Mexico.

Han has collaborated with several performers, ensembles, and organizations. These artists include Matchstick Percussion, saxophonist Luke Kranyak, the Penn State Percussion Ensemble (dir. Lee Hinkle), the Penn State Graduate Brass Quintet (dir. Velvet Brown), Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet, the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra (dir. Gerardo Edelstein), RE:duo, pianist Eunmi Ko, flautist Francesca Arnone, the University of South Florida Flute Studio, and Hypercube.

In Fall 2024, Hitchen completed an artist residency at the Catwalk Art Residency in Catskill, New York. During his time in Catskill, he worked on a current project for a large-scale for stereo electronic playback. Their work for brass quintet and percussion quintet, blending, won the 2024 Penn State Ensemble Call for Scores, and was premiered by the Penn State Graduate Brass Quintet and Percussion Ensemble in April 2024. feeding fire – a work for stereo fixed media – is included on MUSLAB: Planeta Complejo, a CD produced by Cero Records. Their work for orchestra, Fog, won the 2022 Penn State Ensemble Call for Scores, and was premiered by the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra in February 2022. In May 2021, their piano work Ursus maritimus was featured as a part of Eunmi Ko’s SPAM! project on I Care If You Listen and Neuma Records. Ursus maritimes is also featured on the album Eunmi Ko + CAMP: 12 Views on Life. In March 2019, Hitchen’s fixed media work Hot Oil won the Terroir New Music Call for Scores, and was performed at Terroir 009: Adjunt. In the spring of 2018, Hitchen was awarded a Merit Award for Electronic Music from the University of South Florida School of Music.

Starting Fall 2025, Hitchen will be pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at Arizona State University, where he will study with Jody Rockmaker, Fernanda Nevarro, Alex Temple, Gabriel Bolaños, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Garth Paine. Hitchen holds a Master of Music in Composition at Penn State University, as well as a Professional Performance Certificate (PPC) in Composition and Music Technology from Penn State University, where they studied with Drs. Baljinder Singh Sekhon, II and Sarah Genevieve Burghart Rice. They also hold  a Bachelor of Music in Acoustic and Electronic Composition from the University of South Florida.

In addition to composing, Hitchen works towards the upliftment of living and marginalized artists. During his time at Penn State, he served as Vice President for Living Music, an organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of music by living composers hosted at Penn State. He also served as the graduate facilitator for the discussion group Beyond the Binary, hosted at Penn State’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. During his undergraduate studies, Hitchen served on the executive boards for New-Music Consortium at the University of South Florida and USF’s Trans+ Student Union. In Summer 2022, Hitchen worked as a research intern with Boulanger Initiative, a nonprofit organization that advocates for and promotes women and gender marginalized composers through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions. Han's responsibilities included assisting in the research of women and gender marginalized composers throughout history, as well as updating and expanding a database of women and gender marginalized composers. Additionally, he was co-host to Lost to Time, a podcast that shines light on accomplished composers, musicians, and other artists whose works are underrepresented, despite their fruitful careers.