She studied at the Bucharest Conservatory from 1944 to 1954, where she took classes in piano with Florica Musicescu and Silvia Căpățână, as well as in composition with Leon Klepper and Mihail Jora.
She taught counterpoint and composition at the Bucharest Conservatory from 1954 to 1988, where her refusal to join the Romanian Communist Party prevented her from reaching the rank of Professor.
Between 1968 and 1972, she managed to obtain permission from Romanian authorities to travel to the West and participate in the Darmstadt New Music Summer School in West Germany, and in 1971, at the Royan Festival for Contemporary Music in France.
After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, she was awarded a working grant from the German city of Mannheim for the year 1989–90.
She coauthored a monograph on George Enescu and also wrote critical essays and analyses on musical style.