Born in Mosul, Iraq in 1939 to parents Israel and Tefarik, Khatchatur Israel Pilikian was one of 5 children, his twin Arsine, elder sisters Marie and Markrid and his younger brother Hovhannes. He lived and studied in Iraq, Lebanon, Italy and the USA before finally settling in London. He was a performing and recording musician, artist, poet, research scholar and university professor. After leaving his studies in architecture at Rome University (1957-1959), Pilikian pursued his art studies at the Fine Arts Academy and the French Academy, both in Rome, while continuing his music studies at Rome’s St. Cecilia Academy and Chigiana Academy in Siena. 

As a leading tenor, he was invited to Armenia, where he made his debut in 1961, singing the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s opera Tosca, at the Spendiarian Opera Theatre of Yerevan. His award winning painting Amore Eterno of 1961, graced the cover of the Vatican’s bi-weekly Crociata (no. 23). In 1962, Pilikian sang the part of Tancredi in the first performance of Virgiglio Mortari’s edition of Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, produced at the Astaldi Palace in Rome, conducted by maestro Mortari himself. In the spring of 1963, he performed songs by Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Komitas on Italian radio (RAI) accompanied at the piano by his tutor, maestro Giorgio Favaretto. It was the first Italian radio recording of Komitas songs. He created two roles in Mario Nascimbene’s TV-opera Faust a Manhattan, conducted by maestro Franco Ferrara and directed by Sandro Bolchi, which represented Italy in the International TV Festival Premio Italia 64. In 1967, his recital programme at the Purcell Room included twelve Komitas songs – a first performance in Britain. During the historic Paris student movements in1968, the cultural committee of The International House of The City University, invited Pilikian to interpret a multi-cultural vocal recital, accompanied by the pianist J.H. Austbo and performed at the Grand Theatre of the University. Back in Yerevan, Pilikian was the tenor soloist in the first complete performance of Verdi’s Requiem in Armenia, January 1969, conducted by maestro Ohan Durian, at the Aram Khatchaturian Concert Hall alongside the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. 

In 1973, ‘Leonardo da Vinci on voice, music and stage design' was the title of his research as a Fulbright Scholar at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he received his Doctorate in 1975. In 1976, he joined the music faculty of Wayne State University (Michigan), where, in addition to his academic responsibilities as a pedagogue/performer with WSU faculty, now Professor Pilikian designed and directed an original university radio WDET-FM series entitled HARC-The Heritage of Armenian Culture (sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union—AGBU).

In 1984, London, he published Refuting Terrorism - Seven Epistles From Diaspora (in English and Armenian). His pioneering publication was Komitas and the Renaissance of the Arabic Music (in Arabic), Beirut, Toranian, 1985. His epic poetry in English, with original illustrations in Chinese ink, titled Labour 100—Panegyric on Old-New-Future Labour, was published by Brentford & Isleworth Labour Party Publication, London, 2000. A year later in 2001, he contributed the entry Music and Turner in the Oxford University Press encyclopaedic publication titled The Turner Companion. In Jan. 2002, he took part, as a tenor soloist, with Cahit Baylav (violin) and Hassan Erraji (oud), in the Nazim Hikmet 100 Celebration Concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Spokesman, the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation periodical, published his paper for the 2005 European Network for Peace and Human Rights Conference, The Spectre of Genocide as Collateral Damage is Haunting the World. In Dec 2004, his choice of the word Bareshen (Built-for-Goodness), graced, as its name, the new AGBU built village in Artsakh-Karabakh. His other big event in 2004 was his retirement after several years teaching violin in schools around West London. 


In 2006, he produced and directed his original Audio-Visual Libretto, Harmonic Synthesis of Armenian Poems and Music, commissioned for the AGBU 100th Anniversary, Montreal, Canada. His book UNESCO Laureates: Nazim Hikmet & Aram Khatchaturian was published by Garod Books of the Gomidas Institute. In November 2009 he was invited to Athens to mark the 140th birth anniversary of Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935), with a song recital, under the auspices of the Armenian Social and Cultural Centre of Athens, Greece. Through his retirement, he was ceaseless in his commitment to writing, both creatively and factually, having countless articles published.

He was lovingly referred to as Khatchig amongst his friends and is survived by his beloved wife, Araxie, as well as their son, Vazken.