Therese Grünbaum was born in Vienna to Austrian conductor and composer Wenzel Müller (1767–1835) and his first wife Magdalena Reinichsthal (1765–1794).

Therese studied music with her father and made her stage debut in the part of Lilli in Ferdinand Kauer's Das Donauweibchen while still a child.

In 1807 Grünbaum took a position as a singer at the Prague Theater, and in 1815 Carl Maria von Weber composed a special scene and aria for her performance of the title role of Étienne Méhul's Héléna.

In 1816 she moved back to Vienna, and in 1819 at the Kärntnertor Theater, she sang Desdemona in the Viennese debut performance of Gioachino Rossini's Otello.

[1] After retiring from her concert career for health reasons, Grünbaum opened a music school in Berlin.