Emma Hagenström was born in Sweden 1977 and started her studies in Oslo at the Barratt Due Institute of Music. She continued at the Edsberg Institute of Music in Stockholm with Professor Björn Sjögren and moved to Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg with Professor Wolfram Christ.
During these years she played in the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra and in the Opera in Stockholm.
She was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra before she got the position as sub principal in the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in 2002.