JELICA KUZMIN finished her primary and secondary musical education at the Pavao Markovac Music School in Zagreb in the class of professor Vilma Klajner (parallelly finishing the III. Gymnasium in Zagreb), and she graduated from the Musical Academy at the Zagreb University in the class of professor Ladislav Šaban in 1978. From then on she began building her teaching career at the Pavao Markovac Music School, where she was the head of the piano, harpsichord and organ department from 1997 to 2020. She had 38 high-school graduates, 21 of which continued their musical education at the Musical Academy of Zagreb and other renowned musical academies abroad, e. g. Kunstuniversität in Graz, Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Mannes School of Music and the City University of New York in New York, Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington and University of Miami, Florida, USA. In her 42-year long teaching career her students won more that 120 national and international awards, most of which are first places.

Jelica Kuzmin is the winner of the annual award of the Croatian Association of Music Teachers for great achievements in her work. She is a regular member of juries in national and international competitions and gives master classes for students and colleagues from music school all over Croatia.

As an active member of EPTA - Croatia, she participated with her students in conventions in Norway, Hungary and Slovenia.

In her work, she has been systematically showing the importance of chamber music-making at the earliest student age, she founded the piano chamber music festival in her department, and, in cooperation with her colleagues, she has been very successful and won many awards teaching piano four hands, six hands and eight hands.

Jelica Kuzmin conceived and started the Young Virtuoso – Zagreb international competition.

In 2004 she was elected by the Agency for education to be the head of professional boards of piano teachers. In 2006 she has been promoted to the professor-mentor teaching rank and in 2008 to the rank of professor-counsellor. In 2021, she was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award", by the Croatian Society of Music and Dance Pedagogues, and in 2023, she received the "Recognition" for outstanding achievements and contribution to music pedagogy, EPTA Croatia.

Jelica Kuzmin, along with some of the music students parents, founded the Leopold Mozart Association, which has been taking care of ZOKOR, the Zagreb Youth Chamber Orchestra, for many years.