As a student she won several first and second prizes in national competitions in the field of solo piano and chamber music. She won the prize for the best student from Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (2005). In October 2013 she won a special prize at the international competition for contemporary music in Karlsruhe for the interpretation of György Ligeti's "Mysteries of the Macabre".

In November 2013 she was awarded the Karl Steinbuch Scholarship for an innovative project in the field of contemporary music and information technology, in a team with the composer Vincent Wikström. Also the Scholarship from Gesellschaft der Freunde - Musikhochschule Stuttgart.

Marija Skender acquired primary and secondary music education at the music school "Vasa Pavic", at the piano department in the class of Prof. Lidija Ferdinandi Skender, as well as at the department of solo singing.

From the year 2002 she studied piano at the Music Academy of Cetinje in the class of Prof. Boris Kraljevic and graduated and obtained a master degree at the class of Prof. Svetlana Bogino. She studied contemporary music at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe in the class of Prof. Markus Stange.

She graduated and obtained a master degree for contemporary music at the class of world famous pianist and professor Nicolas Hodges at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart.

She took part in master-classes of professors Vladimir Ovcinikov, Konstantin Bogino and Jean Pierre Collot (Ensemble Recherche).