Mulvey was born in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland, and studied with Eric Sweeney at Waterford Regional Technical College, Hormoz Farhat at Trinity College Dublin and Agustín Fernández at Queen's University, Belfast.
In April 2010, she was elected to membership of Aosdána, the State-recognised affiliation of creative artists in Ireland.
Gráinne Mulvey's music is timbrally and rhythmically complex—a legacy of her work in the electroacoustic field.
Her microtonally-inflected language derives ultimately from the natural harmonic series, placing her somewhat in the spectral tradition.
[1] Restless turbulence characterises much of her work, exploiting extremes of register, intricate polyrhythms and timbral exploration (including frequent use of "extended" techniques).