Irena Mijušković (Montenegro) was born in Kruševac, Serbia where she also attended the local
elementary music school. She continued her music education at a secondary music school in Niš, under
the tutorship of Mirjana Nikolić. In 1991, she graduated from the Music Academy in Belgrade where she
studied piano and graduated with honors under the tutorship of professor Miloš Ivanović.
Throughout her studies she continued to attend numerous workshops, summer schools and master
classes by world renowned pianists such as Elena Richter, Irina Chukovskaya, Aleksey Nasedkin, Arbo
Valdma, Naum Shtarkman, Vladimir Krpan, Konstantin Bogin, Vladimir Feltsman, Oxana Yablonskaya,
Emanuel Krasovsky, Leslie Howard, Eteri Andjaparidze and Earl Wild.
Following her academic studies, she emerged herself into accompaniment, chamber music and solo
performance, touring the country as a member of different chamber ensembles, winning many piano
competitions, as well as participating in national and international music festivals such as NOMUS,
NIMUS and A FEST. She also performed in many prestigious concert halls around former Yugoslavia, as
well as in France, Italy, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania and made several appearances on local TV
and radio stations.
Her extensive career in performance took a slight turn in 1997 when she decided to venture into
teaching. Over the years her students have been the winners of many national and international piano
competitions in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia, and gained invaluable experience
whilst collaborating with different departments within the music school as a result of Irena’s insistence
on collaborative learning. She was proclaimed the Teacher of the Year three years in a row, from 1997
through 1999 and won the prestigious teaching award in 2015 as the teacher with the highest number
of prizes won by her students. In 2018 she was also recognized as the Employee of the Year by the
Ministry of Education in Montenegro. From 2001 through 2011 she worked as the Head of the Piano
Department at the Herceg Novi Music School in Montenegro. When she’s not teaching, she likes to split
her time between giving master classes in music schools all over the Balkans, organising piano
workshops and participating in different piano competition, only this time as a member of the jury.