Lyudmila Lyadova was born in Sverdlovsk (modern Yekaterinburg) into a family of professional musicians.

At the age of 10, she entered the Sverdlovsk Conservatory where she studied with Bertha Marants and Victor Trambitsky.

[1] During World War II, Lyadova and her mother became active in concert brigades to entertain the troops, where Lyudmila played and sang popular songs.

By November 1943, she had already written a children's miniature on poems by Agniya Barto and Petrovsky and other works including a piano sonata.

She collaborated with poet Georgy Hodosov to produce about one hundred songs, and also worked with poets Sergey Mikhalkov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Nikolay Dorizo, Lucia Zubkova, Boris Bryansky, Vladimir Petrov, Tamara Ponomareva and others.