Zhanna Pliyeva was born in Tskhinvali, Southern Ossetia.
She studied music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, Leningrad, with Dmitry Svetozarov for piano and with Orest Yevlakhov and Alexander Mnatsakanian for composition.
In 1979 she worked as an assistant to Sergey Slonimsky, and later as an orchestra musician, researcher, and teacher, and from 1979 to 1985 as director of the Tskhinvali School of Music.
[2] Pliyeva's works are often based on the folklore of the Mountain People of the northern Caucasus.
She has composed for stage, orchestra, and choral, instrumental and vocal solo performance.