In New York, she took piano lessons from Grete Sultan and studied analysis with Felix Salzer, composition with Edgard Varèse, and John Cage.

In 1977, she became the first woman to win the Koussevitzky International Recording Award with Fire Fragile Flight, for 17 instruments – the work became a signature piece for the Philadelphia ensemble Orchestra of Our Time.

Her music for dance includes Journey of a Poet, written for and executed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Taking Time to be Vulnerable, for Pascal Denichou.

She also contributed music for chamber ensemble to the soundtrack of the 1962 avant-garde film Guns of the Trees, directed by Jonas Mekas.

This approach involved using objects on the strings and playing the piano's interior with percussion mallets, hands, or other methods, allowing her to create a diverse range of sounds.

The instruments were made from various materials such as wood, glass, skins, and metals, offering a rich and varied sonic palette that she used in her compositions and performances.

[16] Dlugoszewski, like other composers of her generation, claimed a wide and varied assortment of influences, many of them Eastern in origin (Noh drama and haiku, for example).