Maria Horja is a senior at Sehome High School. She is 17 and began playing piano with Katie O’Rourke at age 5. Since then, she has been a student of multiple teachers who have guided her musical journey, including Rebecca Manalac and her mother, Milica Jelača Jovanović. She has been studying with Judith Widrig since 2017.

Maria has been participating in the Seattle Young Artists Festival every year since 2019. She was a concerto winner at the Seattle Young Artist Festival in 2023 and a concerto finals alternate in 2022. She was awarded first place at the Outstanding Artists Competition in 2022 as well as the Underrepresented Composers Prize in 2024. Maria has received recognitions at festivals and competitions including gold medals at the Bach Festival in Seattle and Russian Festival in Bellevue; gold medal at Les Cles D’Or (Prague, 2021); laureate of the Sanja Pavlović Memorial Competition; and first place at the Bellingham Music Club Concerto Competition in 2023 and 2024, which culminated in a performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Finale, with the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. She has played at master classes for artists such as George Li, Golda Tatz, Roberto Plano, Christopher Hahn, Robert Shannon, Theresa Bogard, Rachelle McCabe, and David Hyun-Su Kim.

Maria has played violin in NSYS since eighth grade and also loves playing violin in the Sehome High School Chamber Orchestra. Outside of music, she enjoys tennis and is on the varsity team at Sehome High School. Maria has two younger sisters who also play the piano.