[1][2] She was born Marianne Louise Liedtke in Berlin into a highly cultured Jewish family.
Her father was an appellate court lawyer, a role he lost in April 1933 with the rise of the Nazis.
She fled to London in 1934 and taught German and violin lessons, as well as performing with the pianist Peter Gellhorn and her housemate, cellist Eva Heinitz.
After the war, she performed work by a number of contemporary British composers including Franz Reizenstein, Michael Tippett, Richard Rodney Bennett and Peter Racine Fricker, as well as working with Benjamin Britten and performing with the Reizenstein Trio and the London String Trio.
Lidka became Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London, a role she served in from 1963 to 1985.