Jelica Mijanovic is an award-winning Canadian-Montenegrin musician with a rich performing career and years of experience as a guitar professor at various universities, colleges, and conservatories in Canada and Switzerland. Based in Toronto, Jelica is a guitar and ensemble instructor at Mohawk College, Hamilton, while pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Toronto. 

Jelica has been invited to 40+ international festivals and musicology conferences across Europe and North America as a soloist, lecturer, or jury member. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Serbian, and she brings a global perspective to her artistic and academic pursuits.

In 2024, Jelica's artistic and academic contributions were honoured with three prestigious awards. She made history as the first guitarist from the University of Toronto to win either the DMA Recital Competition or the doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarship. Additionally, she received the Newcomer Artist Award from the Toronto Arts Foundation. She also released her solo album 'Meridians - Guitar Music from Six Continents,' funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Jelica has participated in masterclasses with esteemed guitarists, including Pepe Romero, Aniello Desiderio, Judicael Perroy, Lorenzo Michelli, and Pavel Steidl. Since the beginning of her musical journey, she has been regularly mentored by Nedjeljko Pejović, Srđan Bulatović, Vera Ogrizović, Dušan Bogdanović, Oscar Ghiglia, Susana Prieto, Paolo Pegoraro, and Jorge Caballero.

Jelica left her native Montenegro at sixteen to study at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia. She later continued her studies in Switzerland and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Music at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences of Western Switzerland at 19. Two years later, she became the youngest student to obtain a Master's degree in Music Pedagogy from the same institution. She later received a Master's degree in performance in Geneva and Artist Diploma in Music Performance in Strasbourg, France, and Basel, Switzerland.

Jelica Mijanovic taught at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique, Dance et Theatre in Geneva from 2013 to 2019 and was an Associate Professor at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences of Western Switzerland from 2016 to 2019. While teaching guitar at Switzerland’s most renowned music institutions, Jelica participated in guitar competitions, played concerts as a soloist and chamber musician, and attended festivals, at times as a participant, lecturer and jury member. Jelica has won 11 first and two second prizes at international guitar competitions such as Gredos San Diego (Madrid), Guitar Art (Belgrade), Incontri Chitaristici di Gargnagno (Brescia, Italy), and she won four first prizes at the National music competition of Montenegro. She won the Doctoral Music Competition (DMA) at the University of Toronto and received awards in the two largest music competitions in Switzerland – Migros, and the Swiss Association of Musicians, where she competed against all categories of instrumentalists. Jelica has also received 30+ scholarships from private and federal organizations, including the Government of Canada (CGS), the Province of Ontario (OGS), Hans Wilsdorf (Rolex), Rotary International, the Italian Embassy in Montenegro, Yehudi Menuhin (Live Music Now), and the Montenegrin Ministry of Culture.

Jelica is also active as a music editor and commissioner of new works. In 2012 she published "The most beautiful classical pieces for young musicians," – a collection of classical music masterpieces she transcribed for beginners, with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro. In 2014 she invited composers from Iran, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey/Switzerland, and Serbia/USA to write solo guitar pieces based on Montenegrin traditional music. She then prepared the resulting works, dedicated to and premiered by her, for publication as “Montenegro, Origin and Inspiration” (Musical Center of Montenegro, 2016).