He received his doctorate degree from University of Montreal in 2013. The goal of the doctorate program was to revive a partially forgotten genre of opera-ballet by writing an opera-ballet “Bilgamesh” (or “Gilgamesh”)[4] where archaic languages of Mesopotamia, Sumerian and Akkadian, are used exclusively. Ashot Ariyan has taught Composition and Music Theory at the several music institutions including Central Music School of Moscow Conservatory (ЦМШ), Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, University of Montreal and the McMaster University.