A native of Armenia, Samuel Barsegian began studying violin at the age of six at the Tchaikovsky Special School of Music, but at the age of fifteen he decided to switch to the viola. He graduated in 1989 and then pursued his studies at Yerevan State Conservatory with Albert Brutian. Between 1989 and 1991, he was a soloist with the Armenian Radio Symphony Orchestra and received the Grand Prize at the Armenian National Competition. Between 1991 and 1995, he studied at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik, in Freiburg, Germany, with Kim Kashkashian. During this period, he played under the direction of conductors such as Georg Solti, Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov and Daniel Barenboim, and performed as a soloist with the Armenian Philharmonic at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School in the United States of America, and completed a postgraduate degree at the Hochschule Karlsruhe. Later, he developed his artistic career with Professor Rudolf Barshai.

Samuel Barsegian has participated in several workshops with conductors such as Bertrand de Billy, Simone Young, Gilbert Varga, David Zinman and Lawrence Foster. He is the founder and conductor of the Lisbon Chamber Orchestra and has directed several orchestras in Europe. In 2013 he first conducted the Gulbenkian Orchestra, in which he is 1st soloist of the violas.