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Born in Saint Petersburg, Yankovskaya studied ballet between the ages of three- and five-years-old. She studied music from the age of five, playing piano and singing in the Saint Petersburg Children’s Choir of Radio and Television. She attended performances with her mother regularly, citing a production of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges at the Mariinsky Theater as one of her first experiences with opera.

Yankovskaya's mother prioritized her musical development, enrolling her daughter at Guilderland High School in Albany, NY. Yankovskaya also joined the selective private teaching studio of piano duo Vladimir Pleshakov and Elena Winther, and began studying the violin. At 17, she won the school's concerto competition for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 (K. 414). During rehearsals, conductor Jeff Herchenroder suggested that Yankovskaya try leading from the piano. She later made her conducting debut at Herchenroder's request, leading the orchestra for the third movement of Dvořák's Symphony No.7 in D minor.

Yankovskaya was appointed the music director of Chicago Opera Theater in June 2017 and began regular conducting duties with the 2018-19 season. She is the first female music director at Chicago Opera Theater.

During the Syrian refugee crisis, Yankovskaya started a grassroots performance ensemble that would become known as the Refugee Orchestra Project. The first performance by the ensemble took place on May 10, 2016 in Cambridge, MA. Growing interest on social media led to concerts in Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC. The orchestra joined the National Sawdust artists-in-residence for the 2017-18 season.

In 2015, Yankovskaya was one of six conductors selected to join the Dallas Opera's inaugural Hart Institute for Women Conductors and received honorable mention from Marin Alsop's Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship.

Also in the Greater Boston area, she has served as the music director of Commonwealth Lyric Theater, music director of Lowell House Opera at Harvard University (2011-2015), and artistic director of the Boston New Music Festival. Yankovskaya has conducted the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Opera Chorus and prepared the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for programs with the Boston Symphony.

Yankovskaya joined the Boston-based Juventas New Music Ensemble as an associate conductor and served as their music director between 2010-2017. Also taking on the role of artistic director in 2014, she sought to present collaborative, interdisciplinary works ranging from opera and ballet to puppetry, aerial dance, and robotic instruments.

Lidiya Yankovskaya (Russian: Лидия Янковская; Russian pronunciation: [ˈlʲidʲijɐ janˈkofskajɐ]; born 26 March 1986) is a Russian-American opera and symphonic conductor and the Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater. She is currently the only female music director of a major American opera company.