Mikayel Balyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1981. After attending music high schools in his hometown and in Moscow, he studied piano with Rudolf Buchbinder at the Music Academy Basel, where he obtained his concert diploma with distinction in 2004. From 2005 to 2009, he studied harpsichord at the University of the Arts Bremen with Carsten Lohff, as well as clavichord with Menno van Delft and music theory as a major with Volkhardt Preuß at the University of Music and Drama Hamburg. From 2008 to 2012, he taught figured bass and historical keyboard instruments at these universities. From 2012 to 2013, he studied historical improvisation with Rudolf Lutz and Nicola Cumer at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
M. Balyan has worked with conductors such as Loris Tjeknavoryan, Vladimir Spivakov, Howard Griffiths, and René Jacobs. He regularly performs as a soloist and chamber music partner at festivals including Musikfest Bremen, Tage Alter Musik in Herne, Festival Radovljica, the Salzburg Festival, Barocktage Stift Melk, and Resonanzen Vienna, among others.
In 2008, together with the Ensemble amikal (Anne Freitag / baroque flute, Katharina Schlegel-Holzhey / viola da gamba), he won 2nd prize at the International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition at Stift Melk. Along with his long-time chamber music partner, cellist Davit Melkonyan, he was artist in residence at the Musikfest Bremen in 2012 and was awarded the festival’s sponsorship prize. As a result, recordings of the complete sonatas for fortepiano and violoncello by Bernhard Romberg and Johannes Brahms on original instruments were released by Sony Music/deutsche harmonia mundi in 2013 and 2014. M. Balyan can look back on radio recordings for Deutschlandfunk, NDR, and ORF, as well as further CD recordings with Genuin and Musiques suisses. In May 2020, a new CD release followed featuring the two sonatas for fortepiano and violoncello, as well as the Piano Trio in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with Viola de Hoog and Marten Root on the Vivat label.
M. Balyan conducted masterclasses as part of the International Summer Academy Salzburg (2010 and 2011), the International Winter Academies 2016/17 at the University of the Arts Bremen, and at “Herbstgold” 2019 in Eisenstadt.
Since 2014, Mikayel Balyan has held a professorship for fortepiano at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK), where he also teaches ear training and ornamentation. Parallel to his work at the MUK, he has been a lecturer for fortepiano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since April 2019.
Mikayel Balyan enjoys composing in various historical styles and also performs his own compositions.