She studied music at the Institute of Fine Arts at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she received bachelor's and master's degrees.

[1] After completing her studies, Nordenstrom worked as an elementary school teacher until she moved with Krenek to California.

In the following years, she accompanied her husband to visiting professorships in various locations and sometimes collaborated on musical works.

[3] She expended much effort to find ways to promote her late husband's musical performances and recordings.

At the time of her death, she was still hard at work on a project to record the complete cycle of Krenek piano concertos.