Born and raised in the river valley of Agusan in Northeastern Mindanao, Southern Philippines to a Camiguingnon mother and Ilocano father, Grace Nono is an ethnomusicologist and interdisciplinary scholar, music-performing artist, and cultural worker.

As scholar, Grace has published: Babaylan Sing Back: Philippine Shamans and Voice, Gender and Place (Ateneo University Press, 2022; Cornell University Press–Southeast Asia Program, 2021); Song of the Babaylan: Living Voices, Medicines, Spiritualities of Philippine Ritualist-Oralist-Healers (Institute of Spirituality in Asia, 2013); and The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines (ANVIL Publishing and Fundacion Santiago, 2008). She has also contributed chapters to edited volumes, has published audio titles and essays on Philippine traditional musics, and has co-produced the two documentary films on Philippine oral and ritual traditions: BALAAN: Sacred Voices, Sacred Lands (Forthcoming) and Wisdom Keepers of the Earth (2022). Grace has taught courses at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Miriam College, the California Institute of Integral Studies, Harvard Divinity School, and the UN University of Peace. She has additionally given numerous public lectures in the Philippines, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates.

As music performing artist, Grace sings a number of sung oral traditions, many of them with sacred themes, taught to her by Indigenous, Native Muslim, and Native Christian Culture Bearers, interreligious and intercultural dialogue through the arts being one of her advocacies. Grace has been featured in solo and collaborative performances in over sixty cities and venues in over twenty countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Among these performances and venues are the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, the Vargas Museum, Ayala Museum, Mayric’s and 70s Bistro in Manila; the House of World Cultures and Savvy Contemporary in Berlin; the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid; the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona; the Caravanserai Desert Camp in Dubai; the Asia Society, Skirball Cultural Center, Renee Weiler Hall, Symphony Space, Irish Arts Center and Lincoln Center in New York City; the Bethanie and Asia Society in Hong Kong; the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena; the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawa;, the National Museum in Singapore; the Music Village Festival in London; the Archa Theatre in Prague; the Frankfurt Lab in Frankfurt; Radio Paris in Paris; Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo; WOMAD-Minato Mirai in Yokohama; the World Exposition on Nature’s Wisdom in Nagoya; the Penang World Music Festival in Penang; the Asian Fantasy Orchestra tours in New Delhi, Bombay, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyazaki, Bangkok, Vientiane, Yangon, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh; various presentations in Huairou, Bangkok, Jakarta, Nanning, Shanghai, Seoul, Penang, Taipei, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Butuan, Bunawan, Davao, Ilo-ilo, Palawan, Mindoro, Bicol, Baguio, Zambales, Cagayan Valley, and Sagada. Related to her performances, Grace has released six award-winning solo albums, and has contributed tracks to around fifteen recording compilations. Grace Nono’s music is available here: https://www.youtube.com/@gracenonoofficialyoutubepa2644/playlists.

As cultural worker, Grace founded the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, a Philippine non-profit organization engaged in cultural and environmental initiatives for almost three decades. The Tao Foundation manages three School of Living Traditions in the province of Aguan del Sur, runs the Himig at Galaw ng Ninuno Ninuno: Philippine Traditional Music and Movement Series, the PAMATI Encounters, the Alima Eco, Agri, and Heritage Park development, and several other programs. The Tao Foundation has partnered with local and indigenous communities and government and non-government agencies including the National Commission for Culture and Arts, the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau and Forest and Wetland Research, Development and Extension Center, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Toyota Foundation, the Advocates of Philippine Fair Trade, the Australia-Philippines Community Cooperation Program, the Sanctuary Fund, and UNESCO. For more information about the Tao Foundation, pls. visit https://taofoundationphilippines.org/.

Grace received her bachelor’s in Humanities and master’s in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines-Diliman; a second master’s in Religious and Gender Studies from Yale University, and a doctorate in Ethnomusicology from New York University. Grace was also awarded a post-doctoral position by the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at the Harvard Divinity School, and fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council in New York; the Asia-Pacific Performance Exchange program in Los Angeles; the NYU Global Research Initiative in Florence; Cultural Vistas in Berlin; the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, Provence; the Asia-Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO in Kyoto; and the Asian Institute of Management’s Managing the Arts Program in Makati.

To date, Grace has won 48 awards, including the SUDI National Music Award, The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service or TOWNS award, the Ten Outstanding Young Men or TOYM award, the University of the Philippines Distinguished Alumni award, four nation-wide book awards, three album of the year awards, three best world music album awards, several Catholic Mass Media, Katha, Awit, National Press Club, and other awards for her musical, scholarly, and other cultural contributions.

Grace lives in the Philippines with her daughter Tao, their cats and dogs, and fellow-sojourners.