Born in Nyköping on 29th October 1948, she studied at the State Academy of Music in Stockholm between 1968 and 1973, graduating as a music teacher. At the same time she studied composition with Maurice Karkoff. An exchange fellowship enabled her to continue her studies at the Cracow Conservatory in 1974 and 1977, where she studied composition with Krzysztof Meyer and Krzysztof Penderecki and conducting with Jozef Radwan. In 1977 she took a B.A. degree at the University of Stockholm. She graduated as a Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, in 1979. Her teachers there were Melwin Powell (composition) and Daniel Schulman (conducting).

Kerstin Jeppsson’s interest in poetry is reflected by her numerous vocal compositions to words by such writers as Edith Södergran, Lars Forssell, Göran Sonnevi, Karin Boye and Pär Lagerkvist. A great deal of her output, however, is purely instrumental music, e.g. the highly personalised Crisis (1976-1977) for strings and percussion. Chamber music is also included in her primary interests, as witness String quartet no. 1, Vocazione (1982) and Prometheus (1983). In the piano piece Fantasia appassionata (1984) she captures both rhythmic, dance-like characteristics and moods of tranquil introspection.
Stig Jacobsson 1987 Photo Lars Torndahl