Mikael Nikitovich Terian (1905–1987) was a Soviet violist, conductor, and music teacher of Armenian descent. He was named People's Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1945.
Born in Moscow on 14 July 1905, Terian studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1919 to 1925. His teachers included Georgy Dulov and Konstantin Mostras for violin, and Felix Blumenfeld and Yevgeny Guzikov for chamber ensemble. He made the viola his principal instrument in 1923.
From 1924, he concentrated on ensemble performance with the Moscow Conservatory Young Musicians' Quartet, renamed the Komitas Quartet in 1932. Apart from a brief interruption, he remained a member until 1947 and later performed with a quartet led by David Oistrakh. He also played viola in the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra from 1926 to 1931 and from 1941 to 1945.
Terian's conducting career centred on the Moscow Conservatory Student Orchestra, which he led in various forms from 1946 until his death. The orchestra toured successfully in the Soviet Union and abroad and made several recordings. He also directed the Moscow Regional Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra from 1957 to 1960 and the State Symphony Orchestra of the Armenian SSR from 1965 to 1966.
In Moscow in 1957, Terian conducted the premiere of Semyon Bogatyrev's reconstruction of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's E-flat major Symphony, which the composer had destroyed. From 1935 he taught viola and chamber ensemble at the Moscow Conservatory, and in 1961 became head of its Department of Opera and Symphonic Conducting. His students included the violists Genrikh Talalyan and Galina Odinets.
He wrote Six Etudes for Viola and music for several dramatic productions. His awards included the Stalin Prize, second class, in 1946 for his concert work with the Komitas Quartet, as well as the title Honoured Art Worker of the Armenian SSR. Terian died in Moscow on 13 October 1987 and was buried at the Armenian Cemetery there.