Madeleine Isaksson, born in 1956 in Stockholm, studied piano from an early age at various music schools. During the years 1979-1987 she studied at the Stockholm Academy of Music, first mainly piano with teachers such as Gunnar Hallhagen and Mats Persson (piano), Eva Nordenfeldt (harpsichord), Hans Eklund (composition) and Bo Wallner (theory/analysis), and continued in 1983 in the composition class with teachers Gunnar Bucht and Sven-David Sandström (composition), Pär Lindgren (electroacoustics), Arne Mellnäs (instrumentation) and Lars-Erik Rosell (counterpoint).