Elżbieta Penderecka was born in Kraków. She studied physics at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Since 1965 she has been managing the office of her husband, Krzysztof Penderecki.

In 1990 she co-founded and was the president of the first private agency Heritage Promotion of Music and Art. She ceased to do it in the middle of 1995. Since 1992 she has been helping her husband to organize the Pablo Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Krzysztof Penederecki was the artistic director of that Festival in 1992-2002.
Elżbieta Penderecka is a member of many supervisory boards of several foundations such as European Mozart Foundation. The foundation having its Head Office in Poland ceased to exist in December 1998. Mrs. Penderecka was co-founder of that foundation and she was an active participant in the works of the Advisory Committee and the Artistic Board of the foundation. She contributed the creation of a chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia, the official orchestra of the Capital Royal City of Kraków. She helps to promote this ensemble and to organize its concerts being the patron of events.
In November 1997 she organized charity concert together with Studio Centre of Art raising money for the victims of the flood with the participation of Sinfonia Varsovia, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Philharmonic Choir and the soloists Izabela Kłosińska, Arto Noras and Ewa Pobłocka. In 1997 she initiated the cycle Concerts of Great Masters - Elżbieta Penderecka Presents introducing such eminent artists as Mscislav Rostropovich, Jessye Norman, Simon Estes. She continued that cycle in 1998 inviting to Kraków Barbara Hendricks and Stanisław Bunin. In 1999 Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman visited Kraków and Olga Borodina and Maxim Vengerov, Shlomo Mintz, Heinrich Schiff and Julian Rachlin came to Warsaw.
In 1996-2000 she was the chairman of the Artistic Board of the Festival Kraków 2000 - European City of Culture. As a part of the Festival Kraków 2000 many great artists came invited by Elżbieta Penderecka: New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur, Norddeutsche Rundfunk and Christoph Eschenbach, Concentus Musicus and Maestro Harnoncourt, Bergen Philharmonic and Simone Young, Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck and Bundesjugendorchester under the baton of Maestro Gerd Albrecht. Together with Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and German Music Board she organized the tour of Bundesjugendorchester Poland and Germany - Together in the Heart of Europe under the honorary patronage of the President of Germany Johannes Rau and the President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski in Kraków, Warszawa, Poznań and Gdańsk.
In March 1997 she organized the first Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. In the following years next editions of the festival took place introducing many great artists: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Penderecki Festival Orchestra, under the direction of Krzysztof Penderecki, Juozas Domarkas, Thomas Sanderling, Aldo Ceccato, Leopold Hager, Christoph Eschenbach, John Neal Axelrod, Rudolf Buchbinder, Boris Pergamenschikow, Arto Noras, Barry Douglas, Yuri Bashmet, Shlomo Mintz, Boris Carmeli, Elena Zaremba, Matthias Hölle, Renate Behle, Chor der Bamberger Symphoniker and La Stagione Frankfurt, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, NOSPR, Sinfonia Varsovia, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Tokyo String Quartet, and many others.
In 1998 Elżbieta Penderecka was the Artistic Director of Krzysztof Penderecki Festival. Musical events of that year in Kraków took place under the patronage of the composer himself. In November 1996 Elżbieta Penderecka was awarded a medal Polonia Restituta. One year later she was awarded the PRO MUSIC VIVA prize given by maria Strecker Daelen Foundation recognizing her eminent achievements in Polish and international musical life. On January 10th 1998 she was the laureate of the special prize Gold Statue of Business Center Club. In January 1999 she was given Honorary Award for Contributions to the development of the Voivodship City of Kraków. The same year she got the medal of the 40 anniversary of Fulbright Program in Poland. With reference to that celebration she co-organized charity symphonic concert in Grand Theatre.
She is a member of the Board of the Łańcut Castle Foundation. She was invited to cooperate with one of Polish publishing houses which will promote Poland and its joining EU together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For her charity activity since 1995 for Blood Disease Prevention and Treatment Professor Julian Aleksandrowicz Foundation which supports the development of Hematology Clinique Collegium Medicum JU she was given Professor Julian Aleksandrowicz Medal in December 2000.
In February 2001 in the cycle of Great orchestras - Elżbieta Penderecka presents together with Grand Theatre in Warsaw she organized the concert of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In May 2001 she opened the six month piano festival Piano Masters - great talents introducing such pianists as: Francesco Tristano Schlimé, Konstantin Scherbakov, Henri Sigfridsson, Filippo Gamba, Kun Woo Paik and Barry Douglas. The first edition of that festival ended in November with Aelksander Gindin performance.
Elżbieta Penderecka has been awarded twice by the magazine Home & market as one of the 50 most influential women in Poland. In May 2002 during Crackfilm festival she was given the Titan of Titans award for her activity promoting the image of Poland in the world.
In June 2002 as a decision of KulturForum Europa Elżbieta Penderecka was the laureate of the jubilee European Culture Award 2002 for her achievements as an Ambassador of Poland in opening European Union to the East. The official ceremony of handing in the award was on September 9 2002.
On March 28 2003 Elżbieta Penderecka was given Gold Cross for Merits for the Republic of Austria given by the President of Austria. The ceremony of handing in the award was on April 14 during one of the concerts of the 7th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. At the end of the festival in April 2003 ELżbieta Penderecka was given Gold Medal Kraków 2000 by the President and the City Board of Kraków as a recognision of her efforts to promote Kraków through organizing and supervising one of the most important cultural events in Poland and in the world - Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival.
In September 2003 Ludwig van Beethoven Association was created and Elżbieta Penderecki became its President. The Association has been organizing the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival which has taken place in Warsaw since 2004.
Elżbieta Penderecka is the General Director of the Piano Festival which has been held in Warsaw since 2004 as the continuation of the Festival "Masters of the Piano". The festival introduces young piano talents and the laureates of the piano contests.