A distinguished votary of laya, Chittoor Subramanyam Pillai received his initial musical training under his father, who was a violinist.
[4] Under Naina Pillai's tutelage, Subramanyam learned and honed his skills by doing Gurukula seva to his Guru (teacher/master) for more than two decades.
He was popular in Swaraprasthanam and Kalapramanam, noted for singing very rare keerthanas of Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and other composers.
These include Madurai Somasundaram, Bombay S Ramachandran,[5] Chittoor Ramachandran, T. T. Seetha, Tadepalli Lokanatha Sarma, Revathy Ratnaswamy and Kovi Manisekaran[citation needed] He started the Saint Thyagaraja Utsavam (annual music festival) in Tirupathi and awarded the title of Sapthagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani to deserving exponents of carnatic music.
To commemorate his birth centenary, the annual Subramanya Sangeetha Kalakshetra was established and a three-day festival of music was held in Hyderabad.