She studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts under Miloslav Kabeláč and Emil Hlobil.
[2] She later studied in Paris at the Centre Bourdan under Olivier Messiaen and Andre Jolivet.
She obtained an honourable mention in Mannheim for the composition Rhapsody in Black, and won at the Guido d'Arezzo” International Polyphonic Competition in Italy in 1978, 1980 and 1984.
Since 1992 Ivana Loudová has taught composition at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague.
Ivana Loudová died in Prague on 25 July 2017 after a long and perilous disease.