Donemus Webshop — Melikyan, Hayk

Hayk Melikyan is an Armenian composer and pianist whose work spans solo piano, chamber, instrumental, vocal, and symphonic genres. Internationally recognized as one of the most versatile and imaginative interpreters of 20th- and 21st-century music, he brings the same curiosity and rigor to his own compositions that have defined his career at the keyboard.
Melikyan began piano at the age of six with Irina Grishinskaya and later studied with Professor Alexander Gurgenov at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. During his school years, a formative encounter with the composer Lazar Saryan—among Armenia’s foremost modernist voices—ignited a deep interest in composition. What began as an exploration soon grew into a sustained artistic practice, ultimately leading Melikyan to formal composition studies at the Yerevan Conservatory with Vardan Adjemian.
His catalogue reflects a flexible, performer-aware imagination: solo works that probe color and resonance; chamber and instrumental pieces that balance clarity of gesture with expressive intensity; vocal cycles attentive to prosody and textual nuance; and orchestral writing that favors transparency of texture. In 2008, Melikyan was awarded First Prize at the Lazar Saryan National Composition Competition for his vocal cycle “Through the Years”, and, in recognition of his contributions to Armenian musical life, he received the Komitas Medal from the Armenian Musical Assembly the same year.
Melikyan’s works have been championed by eminent artists and ensembles, including the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra, Ars Lunga Ensemble, Igor Gryshin (piano), Asako Takahashi (piano), Anna Mayilyan (mezzo-soprano), Anders Paulsson (saxophone), Hugo Ticciati (violin), Svante Henryson (cello), Michael Tsalka (harpsichord) and others. Alongside his original works, Melikyan’s piano transcriptions, concert paraphrases, and arrangements are widely performed by pianists around the world, prized for their idiomatic writing, pianistic flair, and respect for source materials. As a creator-performer, he often premieres his own music, engaging audiences with the same commitment that has drawn praise from leading composers. “I am very grateful to Hayk Melikyan that he took the risk of creating that piece,” wrote György Kurtág in 2008, acknowledging Melikyan’s artistic courage and collaborative spirit.
As a pianist, Hayk Melikyan is a laureate of International Piano Competitions, such as Concours d’Orléans (France), Ibla Grand Prize (Italy), Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music (USA), Premio Valentino Bucchi (Italy), etc. Moscow Composers Union awarded the Pianist a Golden Medal for his contribution and promotion of World Contemporary Music in 2012. In 2013, Hayk Melikyan received the Title of an Honorary Artist of Armenia. In 2025, Hayk Melikyan was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by the President of Armenia as the highest state honor for cultural achievements. BBC Music Magazine named Hayk Melikyan “a Musical Hero for his promotion of contemporary music.” His solo albums are released under renowned labels such as Naxos Grand Piano, Azure Sky, Donemus, ANM, and others. His solo album “Arutiuanian: Complete Piano Works” by Naxos Grand Piano was selected as The Best Classical Music Album of the Year at the National Music Award 2018.
He is the first performer of numerous works by many composers of our time and dozens of pieces have been specially written for Hayk Melikyan. In 2009, this activity led the Pianist to create a series of concerts called 1900+, dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary world piano music. In July 2020, Hayk Melikyan launched a new initiative named 2000+, which aims to propagate the music of exclusively our time. In 2024, Hayk Melikyan was honored with the Golden Medal of the Armenian Ministry of Science, Education, Culture, and Sports upon the 15th anniversary of 1900+.
Hayk Melikyan regularly holds piano master classes around the world and performs at the Festival de Valmagne (France), Festival de Musique en Côte de Nacre (France), Festival O/MODƏRNT (Sweden), Warsaw Royal Arcades of Art Festival (Poland), San Leo Music Festival (Italy), Les Musicales de Baabdath International Music Festival (Lebanon), Penderecki Contemporary Classics’ Festival, Yerevan International Music Festival and Aram Khachaturian International Music Festival (Armenia), etc. Many of them target contemporary music: Pharos Contemporary Music Festival (Cyprus), Lviv Contrasts Contemporary Music Festival (Ukraine), Kyiv GogolFest International Festival of Contemporary Art (Ukraine), Sofia ppIANISSIMO Contemporary Piano Music Festival (Bulgaria), Nuovi Spazi Musicali Festival (Italy), Olomouc International Contemporary Music Festival (Czechia), etc.
Hayk Melikyan has worked with distinguished musicians, including cellists Edgar Moreau and Francesco Dillon, and violinists Kristóf Baráti, Carolin Widmann and Hugo Ticciati, soprano Lena Hoel as well as prominent composers like György Kurtág, Pēteris Vasks, Tigran Mansurian, and Krzysztof Penderecki. As a soloist, he regularly performs with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Montevideo Philharmonic, under the baton of renowned conductors including Valery Gergiev, Gianluca Marcianò, Diego Martin-Etxebarria, Hovhannes Tchekidjian, Eduard Topchjan, Sergey Smbatyan, and many others.