Mina Arissian
Performance Instructor
- MA Music; Graduate Diploma in Music Education; Graduate Diploma in Performance and Creativity
Mina Arissian is an Iranian-Canadian music educator, composer, and pianist whose work bridges composition, performance, and pedagogy. Active as a teacher, composer, and creative mentor, she works at the intersection of educational practice and contemporary musical creation, with a particular focus on composition as a core musical discipline.
Situated between Eastern and Western musical traditions, Arissian’s artistic and pedagogical approach emphasizes composition as a foundational mode of musical thinking. Her teaching integrates music theory, harmony, composition, performance, and music history through creative writing, improvisation, analytical listening, and score-based thinking. She has extensive experience teaching music across a range of educational and conservatory contexts and is currently working full time within Montessori-based education in Ottawa.
Alongside her educational practice, Arissian maintains an active compositional and performance career. Her works have been performed by soloists and ensembles in Canada, the United States, Armenia, Iran and Europe, including performances by the Xelmya Group in Berlin (2018) with Sylvia Hinz, cellists Brian Thornton (2021), Katja Zakotnik (2025), and cellist Diane Choplin (2022).Her music was also performed at Salle Bourgie in Montreal by violinist Saba Yousefi, soprano Bahar Harandi, and pianist Hooshyar Khayam.
Arissian’s chamber music recording It’s Snowing – Music for Piano and Three Instruments features collaborations with Aram Talalyan, Julietta Vardanyan, Elisabette Dastekyan, and Lilyt Khachatryan, and reflects her interest in timbral clarity, structural thinking, and poetic musical narrative. Her music has been presented in cities including Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Berlin, Moscow, Yerevan, and Tehran, and has been released by Ebtekar Records and the Iranian Female Composers Association.
Arissian completed her Master of Music in Composition at the University of Arts in Tehran. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Music Education (Pedagogy) from the University of Ottawa, where she studied under Professor Gilles Comeau, and a Graduate Diploma in Performance and Creativity (Composition) from the Komitas State Conservatory of Music in Armenia. Her interdisciplinary academic background also includes studies in engineering, which inform her analytical, structural, and systems-based approach to both composition and music education.