She studied with Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl and Dagmar Walle-Hansen at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen (1907-1911) and with Ernst von Dohnányi and Ignaz Friedman at the Berlin conservatory (1911-1914). After having started a successful career as a performer she also taught at the conservatory in Oslo (1936-1948).
In 1926 she married the American opera singer Wallace Symons Buchanan, who was arrested on 8 February 1941 and imprisoned in Aa (Åkebergveien) (#1895) for insulting the Germans and NS (“Fornærmed tyskerne og NS”). He was arrested again on 27 March 1941 for insulting Nasjonal Samling and was questioned by the Gestapo at Polizeigefängnis Møllergata 19 in Oslo. He was released on 28 June 1941.
