Ludmila Yurina was born in Uzyn, Ukraine, and graduated from Kyiv Music College as a pianist in 1981 and from Kyiv State P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatoire as a composer in 1990 (under Y. Stankovych), completing her post-graduate studies there in 1998. She attended workshops with eminent musicians P-H. Dittrich, Irvine Arditti, H. Zapf, G. Stäbler, J. Durand in Rheinsberg as well as with Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm in Dresden. In 1990–92, she was the Music Director of the theatre studios Kolo and ARS in Kyiv. Since 1993, she has been a member and a coordinator of the Organizing Committee of the International Youth Music Forum in Kyiv. In 1997 she was the Artistic Director of the Meta-Art Ukrainian Contemporary Art Festival in Kyiv.
Since 1995 Yurina has worked as Associate Professor of Department of composition at the National Music Academy of Ukraine specialising in composition and orchestration. She was composer-in-residence at the Rheinsberg Music Academy in Germany in 1999, and has lectured at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart (2006) and Texas Christian University ( 2008, 2011).
Yurina's creative residences include Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Germany, 1998; Experimental Electronic Music Studio of Südwestrundfunk (grant from Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung, Freiburg, Germany, 1999); Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Research, Science and Art (Baden-Baden, Germany, 2001); and Visby International Centre for composers (or VICC) (Gotland, Sweden, 2005, 2006). In 2010 she received a grant from Fulbright -Foundation to Stanford University, CCRMA (USA). Yurina is a member of the Organizing Committee of the 1st and 2nd Festivals of Ukrainian Music in Fort-Worth (Texas, USA, 2008, 2012).
