Mansurian was born in Beirut, Greater Lebanon on January 27, 1939. His family moved to the Armenian SSR in 1947 and settled in Yerevan in 1956, where he continued his education. He studied first at the Romanos Melikian Music School under the Armenian composer Edvard Baghdasaryan and later at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. During his years of study, he wrote different works of varied genres and was awarded for some of them.