Amirkhanyan studied composition at the Yerevan State Conservatory, under Edvard Mirzoyan. He has been teaching at the same conservatory since 1969, being the head of the Chair of Music theory (Professor since 1981). Robert Amirkhanyan has been the music editor of the Armenian National Radio. He also served as the president of the Composers’ Union of Armenia from 1991 to 2013. He created more than 300 songs and vocal series, a concerto for piano and symphony orchestra (1969), ‘Variations for the string quartet’ (First prize at the USSR young composers’ competition , 1969), the operetta ‘From Philistines into the Nobles’ (premiered in 1979), children’s musicales: ‘The Eastern Dentist’ (premiered in 1976); ‘Ding Dong’ (1979), song series «My first word», «The stone» (lyrics by Alicia Kirakosyan), «Memory» (lyrics by Irina Panova), «Yerevan rhapsody» for piano and symphony orchestra (2009), «Cantata of love» for viola, big choir and symphony orchestra (2012), choral songs «The only-begotten- descended from the Father», «Our Father», «Majestic Armenian world», «A promised land». His songs include the well-known «My land-my dream», «An Armenian’s eyes», «You are my song», «Keep smiling», as well as «You, like a star», «Capital city Yerevan», «A sunny rain», «With you, my love», «Two cranes», «Give me, Lord», «My time», «Your melody», «Left in Kars...», «Longing» and more. He composed music for 16 feature and 30 animation films: «The males», «Daddy», «Spring Heghnar», «Sour grape», «Puy-Puy mouse», «Wow, a talking fish!» , etc. His songs gained recognition and were awarded multiple prizes at the international song contests in Berlin, Sopot, Sochi, Belgrade, among others. He is the author of the Armenian Army’s anthem, and was also commissioned to compose the anthem of the German city of Lorsch for its 1200th birthday celebration in 2013. He has published 6 original work compilations.
Amirkhanyan is a Merited (1984) and People’s (1986) Artist of Armenia, and was awarded The RA State Prize (2011), The St. Mesrop Mashtots (1998) and The Honorary (2017) Orders of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the Russian Federation Government’s «Federation Star» (2010) Order .