Born in 1953 in Poznań, she graduated from the State High School of Music in her home city, where she studied composition with Andrzej Koszewski. She worked as a violinist in the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra and the Amadeus Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra. Currently she holds the posts of professor of composition and director of the Studio of Electroacoustic Music at Poznań’s Academy of Music; for many years (1989–92 and 2001–10) she also taught classes in sonology at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań.

She has published and lectured extensively on Polish contemporary music, electroacoustic music, the history of experimental music, sound ecology, and traditional Japanese music at the invitation of universities in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, at the Manngha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, as well as during the annual conferences of ISEA, ICMC and WFAE and scholarly sessions in Poland and internationally. She has held summer courses, workshops, and seminars in Poland, Belarus, Chile, Croatia, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Moldova, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and France. She has served as a juror, curator, expert, and consultant to many musical, intermedia, and educational projects in many countries in Europe, as well as to various institutions in the European Union. For many years, Lidia Zielińska has held a number of official functions. Until 2013 she was the Vice-President of the Polish Composers’ Union’s Managing Board and Vice-President of the Polish Association for Electroacoustic Music. She served on the Repertoire Committee of the Warsaw Autumn Festival (1989–92 and 1996–2005), as artistic director of the Musical Spring Contemporary Music Festival in Poznań (1989–92) as well as the Child and Sound International Festival in Poznań. She was also a member of the Programme Committee of the ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw and the Polish–German Radio Copernicus, member of the board of the Greater Poland bureau of Artistic and Scientific Community Cooperation Committee, and other bodies.

After the political breakthrough of 1989, she was the initiator and cofounder of the BREVIS Music Publishers (1990), Child and Sound Foundation (1991), Monochord music quarterly (1993), Friends of the Warsaw Autumn Foundation (1998), Zachęta Greater Poland Region Fine Arts Society (2004), Polish Association for Electroacoustic Music (PseME, 2005), and other associations.

Her works have been performed at festivals in many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas such as the Berliner Festspiele, Cube Fest, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ICMC, ISEA, Musicacoustica in Beijing, NYCEMF, SignumCrucis in Warsaw (1983), and Warsaw Autumn. Her art was also featured at monographic presentations notably at Poznań’s ON Gallery,Wrocław’s Entropia, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, and ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe.

She has received 17 awards at composers’ competitions, including the first prizes at Jeunesses Musicales in Belgrade (1979), International Composers’ Competition in Mannheim (1981), ZAiKS in Warsaw (1982); M. Deutsch Award in Paris (1984), Künstlerhaus in Boswil (1986), L’Opéra Autrement in Avignon (1988). In 2007 she received the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union for her outstanding and varied achievements in the field of composition, and in 2015, the Gloria Artis Medal of Merit for Culture.

Selected works (from 2005): Die Fälle des Herrn von K., electronic music for ballet (2005), Lunches in Rejowiec 1965–1565, text–sound composition (2006), Everything Has Already Happened, audiovisual installation (2006), From the Garden of Sciences for choir and CD to words from the Book of Ecclesiastes (2006), Open Your Ears! Open Your Eyes!, audiovisual miniature for children (2006), Conrad’s Seven Islands for electronic timbres and 10 amplified instruments (2007), The Eighth Island for CD (2008), Beethoven’s Cook for CD (2009), To Have a Title for the Piece… for clarinet, electric guitar and piano (2009), Rust for six instruments and CD (2010), Canción triste for violin and CD (2010), In the Rear for computer (2010), Backstage Pass for computer (ambisonics) or multi-channel projection (2010), Melodrama for orchestra (2011), X3 for 14 instruments (2011), Years for orchestra (2011), Musical Landscapes – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, multimedia concert for children (2011), Aphasia for tenor saxophone and CD (2012), Ukiyo for 19 instruments (2012), Insectarium for CD, music for a visual exhibition (2012), 53 Breaths for glissando flute, 8-channel tape and live electronics (2013), X-3m for ensemble (2013), Looks Chinese, Sounds Polish, installation (2013), Lutosławski DIY, installation (2013), Lutosławski DIY Flash Mob (2013), Slices of Music, interactive installation for children (2013), Missed Link, sound show for traditional female folk singers, instrumental ensemble, mobile instruments, 8-channel tape and live electronics (2013–14), Polish Sonorities, installation (2014), Threesome for string quartet, video, instrumental ensemble andlive electronics (2014–15), Sinfonia concertante for small sound devices, small percussion and large orchestra (2014–15), Threesome B for 12 instruments and live electronics (2016), Threesome C for string quartet and tape (2016), Three Hundred for vocal ensemble with soloists, portable instruments, 8-channel tape and live electronics (2016–17), I Don’t Like This… for youth voices, orchestra and electronics (2018; also a version with chamber ensemble and workshops for the youth), Fossil for nine instruments, hommage à Debussy (2018), Klangor for symphony orchestra (2019), Desertification for orchestra, electronic media, children and space (2020–21), Cryptobiosis for ensemble (2025).