Martin Ulikhanyan

Martin Ulikhanyan was born in 1981 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He moved to Armenia and studied clarinet at Yerevan Sayat-Nova Music School and later graduated from Yerevan State Conservatory, where he as well studied composition and clarinet. He continued his education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (composition) and later at the UCLA Film Scoring Program in Los Angeles. There, he studied and collaborated with renowned film composers such as Charles Bernstein, James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams, Thomas Newman, Michael Giacchino, and John Powell.

For ten years, he led the progressive jazz band Ulikhanyan Quintet, performing at numerous festivals. In 2008, together with his brother Vardan Ulikhanyan, he founded the Ulikhanyan Jazz Club, which has since become one of the leading jazz venues in the region.

Ulikhanyan's music has been performed in the USA, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Syria, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria. His works have received multiple awards and have been released by prestigious labels such as New Focus Recordings and Deutsche Grammophon.

Today, Martin Ulikhanyan continues to compose across a wide range of styles and genres — symphonic, chamber, contemporary, traditional, and film — actively collaborating with soloists, orchestras, and cultural institutions around the world.