Holmès was born in Paris and grew up in Versailles. Although her talent as a pianist was evident, as a British citizen she was not allowed to study at the Conservatoire de Paris and had to take private lessons instead. She showed some of her early compositions to Franz Liszt. Around 1876, she became a student of César Franck, whom she called her master. She played a leading role in the group of Franck’s students who, in 1891, commissioned a bronze medallion by Auguste Rodin for Franck’s tombstone. Some of her compositions are considered to have political connotations, such as her symphonic poems "Irlande" and "Pologne".