Chitralekha Chowdhury had initiated in the world of music in her very childhood  by her mother, the famous painter, Chitraniva Chowdhury who was the direct disciple of Rabindranath Tagore.

Chitralekha later took vigorous training in Rabindra Sangeet from the following great musical personalities:- 1) Indira Devi Chaudhurani 2) Shanti Dev Ghosh and 3)Sailaja Ranjan Mazumdar

She also took training in Classical Music from the following great personalities :-1) Ustad Allauddin Khan 2) Gopeswar Bandyopadhyay 3) Ramesh Chandra Banerjee & 4) Joy Krishna Sannyal.

After completing her school life in Santiniketan she entered Presidency College, Calcutta for enrolling in B.Sc. class with honours in Physics, and participated in many musical conferences. While doing post Graduation she took training in Dwijendrageeti and songs of Atul Prasad from the great music critic and exponent Rajyeswar Mitra.

After completing M.Sc. from Science College, Calcutta, she started her teaching career in City College, Calcutta.

She has been performing Rabindra Sangeet in The All India Radio from her childhood and in Doordarshan, Calcutta from its inception.

In 1968, she married Dr Subodh Chandra Som, The eminent scientist, who was at that time a senior Lecturer in Calcutta University and later became the Vice - Chancellor of Jadavpur University.

She did her Ph.D in Physics under Prof. Albaric Boivin in Laval University, Quebec, CANADA. In the music faculty of this University she took training in Western Music in Piano.

She performed Rabindra  Sangeet in C.B.C. ,Canada and B. B. C. ,London and in many cities in Canada and U.S.A.

After her return from Overseas she received innumerable offers from many gramophone companies like Megaphone Co.,  S.T.M. Co, etc. Hindusthan Co. published two albums with her previous records.

She offered her services as Pool Officer in Science College, Calcutta. Later she became the Principal of a college and a part - time Lecturer in Vocal Music in Rabindra Bharati University.

After coming back to India, she started her Music School "UTTARAYAN"where she has been teaching the perfect 'Gayaki' of Rabindra Sangeet in 'Santiniketan -Gharana' which she had achieved from her Gurus at Santiniketan.