Sumana Chandrasekhar has a Master degree in Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism. Sumana has been with IFA (India Foundation for Arts) for over a decade and has worked on various projects and grant programmes at the Foundation.  She has travelled extensively across the country and has worked closely with individual artists, artist communities, and researchers. 

She has also presented papers on music and music education and has performed in India and abroad.

Sumana is a performing Carnatic vocalist and a ghatam player as well. As an independent researcher, she has been studying the cultural history of the ghatam in Carnatic music. For this, she has received a grant from the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).