Her mother, Ramona R. Sacote, originally from Camiguin island, was an English and mathematics teacher, writer, and school administrator during the foundational years of what is now the Agusan Del Sur State College of Agriculture and Technology.

Her father, Igmedio A. Nono, originally from Nueva Ecija, was a farmer leader who promoted land reform, established cooperatives, and advocated organic farming long before it was widespread.

These performances have included solo concerts at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila (1995, 2017),[9] the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (1995),[10] the House of the World's Cultures in Berlin (2005),[11] the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid (2006),[12] Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona (2006),[13] the Asia Society in New York (2013, 2015),[14][15] the Renee Weiler Hall in New York (2012),[16] the Irish Arts Center and Symphony Space in New York (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014),[17][18] the Soul Force Sacred Music Festival in Pasadena (2019),[19] the World Exposition on Nature's Wisdom in Nagoya (2005),[20] the WOMAD-Minato Mirai in Yokohama (1996),[21] the National Museum in Singapore (2009), the Singapore Arts Festival (2003),[22] the Hong Kong Festival for the Arts (1998), the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching (2018),[23] Asia Society Hong Kong (2013);[24] collaborations with the Asian Fantasy Orchestra in New Delhi, Bombay, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyazaki (1998),[25][26] Bangkok, Vientiane, Yangon, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (2003),[27] and with the Gathering of Drummers in Prague and Bratislava (2009); various artists concerts at the Lincoln Center La Casita Festival in New York (2009),[28] the Music Village Festival in London (2002),[29] the World Music Festival in Penang (2012);[30] guest performances and presentations in Monte Carlo (2006), Paris (2002, 2006), Ithaca (2006), Boston (2014, 2016),[31][32] Toronto (2014),[33] Vancouver (2014, 2016),[34] Huairou (1995), Nanning (2006), Shanghai (2008), Kaohsiung (2005), Seoul, Jaraseom (2008), Jakarta, Honolulu (2006, 2016),[35] Los Angeles (2006),[36] San Francisco (2008), San Diego (2002), Chicago (2002), Ann Arbor (2016),[37] Bloomington (2016),[38] Richmond (2016),[39] Blairstown (2014),[40] Fairfield (2014),[40] Quezon City, Cebu, Iloilo, Roxas, Bikol, Baguio, Sagada, Butuan, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zambales,[41] Cagayan Valley, Palawan and Mindoro.

At the Agusan National High School, she joined a choir that specialized in Euro-American avant garde-styled arrangements of local folk songs.

Then, as a member of the Baguio Arts Guild she fronted a punk-rock group called The Blank that performed American and British underground music.

"I realized … that there was a yawning divide between my reality and the mission that one teacher at the Philippine High School for the Arts had stated for me: 'to search for the Filipino cultural identity,'" she wrote in The Shared Voice.

[37] In the 1990s, Grace became one of the pillars of what was then called the “Philippine alternative music scene,” a loose movement that was picked up by the major record labels.

[57] She has also contributed articles to edited collections, namely: "Listen to Voices: The Tao Foundation Experience," in Intangible Cultural Heritage- NGOs’ Strategy in Achieving Sustainable Development: The Relationship between Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and Education (Korea: International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia Pacific Region under the Auspices of UNESCO, 2018),[58] "Locating the Babaylan: Philippine Shamans and Discourses of Religion, Spirituality, Medicine and Healing," in Spirituality and Health (Quezon City: Institute of Spirituality in Asia, 2017),[59] "Audible Travels: Oral/Aural Traditional Performances and the Transnational Spread of a Philippine Indigenous Religion," in Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory (California: Center for Babaylan Studies, 2013).

As a teacher, Grace has taught courses on Music and Culture, and Philippine Traditional Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman; Local and Oral History at Miriam College; and Women and Shamanisms at the Harvard Divinity School.

[73] In its over twenty years of existence, the Tao Foundation has collaborated with local, national and transnational groups (1994–present) and has received support from the National Commission for Culture and Arts (2000, 2007, 2015, 2016), the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2005), Give2Asia (2014, 2015), Sanctuary Fund (2014, 2015), Toyota Foundation (2004), UNESCO (2006), Advocates of Philippine Fair Trade (2006, 2007), and the Australia-Philippines Community Cooperation Program (2007), and the province of Agusan del Sur (2007).