She grew up and was educated in Christchurch, New Zealand,[1] where she graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master of Music degree.
[3] While in the USA she was taught by Stephen Hartke, Erica Muhl, James Hopkins, and Morten Lauridsen in Los Angeles, and Joseph Schwantner and Samuel Adler in Rochester, New York.
[3] Grenfell allows her work to be influenced by poetic, literary and visual sources but also by non-Western music and literature.
In Spring of 2013 Grenfell was a visiting professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
[8] Grenfell lives in Hobart, Australia, with her husband, guitarist David Malone, and their two children.