Hayk Melikyan

Hayk Melikyan is recognized internationally as one of the most versatile and imaginative performers of the 20th Century and Contemporary Music and among today's most engaging virtuoso pianists by classical music audiences and critics. He started playing piano when he was six with Irina Grishinskaya, later his professional studies were continued with Professor Alexander Gourgenov at the Yerevan Komitas Conservatory. Hayk Melikyan's international concert début took place at the Concerto di Concerti International Festival of the 20th Century Music in Rome in 2000.

He leads an active concert life, playing throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas on prestigious stages such as Geneva’s Victoria Hall, Lisbon Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium, Amsterdam Conertgebouw, Tokyo’s Santory Hall, etc. 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. The Pianist was awarded with a Gold Medal by Moscow Composers Union for his contribution and promotion of the World Contemporary Music in 2012. In 2013, Hayk Melikyan received the Title of an Honorary Artist of Armenia.

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 the 20th century and contemporary world piano music.

Hayk Melikyan's solo albums are released by various music labels, including Naxos, the leading classical music label in the world. His solo album Arutiuanian: Complete Piano Works by Naxos Grand Piano was selected as The Best Classical Music Album of the Year at the annual National Music Award 2018.

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), Yerevan International Music Festival and Aram Khachaturian International Music Festival (Armenia), etc. Many of them are targeting the 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), etc.

Hayk Melikyan has worked with renowned composers such as György Kurtág, Peteris Vasks, Tigran Mansurian, Jonathan Harvey and Krzysztof Penderecki. In 2018, Hayk Melikyan was invited to play the Armenian premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate for piano and orchestra with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia. In 2019, the Aurora Prize has invited Hayk Melikyan to perform with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

As a composer, Hayk Melikyan is an author of piano solo, chamber, instrumental, vocal and symphonic works. The piano transcriptions, concert paraphrases and arrangements by Hayk Melikyan are among the favorite ones in the repertoires of many pianists worldwide.