A Franco-Swedish composer born in 1956 in Stockholm.
Madeleine Isaksson studied at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm from 1979 to 1987. She won a diploma for piano teaching then studied composition with Gunnar Bucht and Sven-David Sandström. She also studied in Amsterdam with Louis Andriessen and in Royaumont with Brian Ferneyhough. The music of Morton Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi, Iannis Xenakis and Emmanuel Nunes nurtured her artistic journey as did the visual arts and literature. In her works Isaksson expresses various poetic atmospheres inspired by her travels in Europe. She prefers to compose for ensemble rather than for solo instruments and controls sound balance notably through the spatial deployment of the instrumentalists. Among her compositions, both instrumental and vocal, are: Trois Hagliden-Chansons for soprano, clarinet and piano (1982), L’œil d’étang - Île bleu for horn (1990), Inné for instrumental ensemble (1993), Axis for violin and percussion (2002), Failles for trombone, recorder and cello (2003), Infra for two violins (2008), Ciels for vocal ensemble (2009).