After the adoption, Subramanian moved to Chennai and lived at the original Kalakshetra, Theosophical Society with Sambasiva Iyer, who worked as a principal there. He was undergoing vigorous training in the foundations of Carnatic music for one year until the death of his adoptive father in 1958. At Kalakshetra, Subramanian had the opportunity to closely observe notable musicians and dancers, such as composer Mysore Vasudevachar, composer and vocalist M. D. Ramanathan and dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale. Subramanian then returned to Madurai to pursue his academic studies. He completed his B.Sc in Chemistry at Madura College, Madras University and afterwards pursued a M.A in English literature at Madura College, Madras University. In 1975, he moved to the U.S. for doctoral studies in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. From 1965 to 1967 Subramanian worked as a demonstrator in Chemistry at Madura College. He then returned to Chennai to work as an English lecturer at Vivekananda College from 1970 to 1975. After completing his M.A. in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, he moved back to Chennai for a short period and worked as an assistant professor of Music at SSSS College of Music, Madurai. Before commencing his doctoral studies at Wesleyan University, he worked at the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society. After completing his doctoral studies in 1986, he worked at University of Madras from 1986 to 2002, first as reader and later as Professor of Music. In 1989, Subramanian and Dr. S. Seetha – the former head of the department of Music at University of Madras, founded "Brhaddhvani – Research and Training Centre for Musics of the World". Subramanian has made academic visits to numerous universities around the world. He has had visiting positions at Amherst College (Valentine Professor of Music), Leeds College of Music, York University, University of Michigan, University of Limerick, University College Cork. In 1975, Subramanian, along with his sister Rajeswari Padmanabhan, were invited by "Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin-Dahlem" (now Ethnologisches Museum) to document their family tradition going back 9 generations. They recorded the album "Musik Für Vīṇā – Südindien". They were accompanied by Tanjore Upendran on the mridangam.