She was born Julie Sophie Gmeiner in Kronstadt (Brassó), in the region of Transylvania,[1] in Austria-Hungary (today Brașov, Romania).

[1][3] She performed Lieder by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Max Reger, among others, many of them written for her or dedicated to her.

The couple had three daughters, two of whom died young, while the third, Susanne, would marry the tenor Peter Anders, who studied with her mother.

[1] She often collaborated with the pianists Eduard Behm [de], Emil Mattiesen, Arthur Nikisch, Siegfried Ochs, and Reger.

[3][5] She also appeared in concerts, singing for example the Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms and Lieder by Hugo Wolf with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Oskar Fried, on 8 April 1907.