Chandrasena was born on August 27, 1924 in Mahanuvara, much known as Kandy, in central Sri Lanka to a Sinhala Buddhist family. At birth, he was named as Ranasinghe Arachchige Chandrasena Perera. His parents were Ranasinghe Arachchige Jeiris Perera and Selesthina Dias Abeysinghe whose generations had been from Mahanuwara. Chandrasena was the third child of the eleven children in the family. His father was not a musician by profession, but a highly talented musician whose exposure could have influenced Chandrasena to admire music since his childhood.

Chandrasena was educated at Sri Rahula college in Kandy, Prince College in Kotahena and Sri Dharmaloka College in Keleniya. He had the previllege of being mentored by Ananda Samarakoon at Prince College, D B Dhanapala and C M Weerartne at Sri Dharmaloka College. D B Dhanapala was the principle at Sri Dharmaloka College who later became a veteran journalist in Sri Lanka and the Editor-in-Chief at DAVASA newspaper founded in 1961 by M. D. Gunasena and Company, Sri Lanka. C. M. Weeraratne was a teacher at Sri Dharmaloka College who later became the Vice Principal of Ananda College. Further, Chandrasena was also mentored and well supported by U A S Perera, well known as Siri Ayya in his children musical programmes at Radio Ceylon.

In 1943, Chandrasena met a young talented singer, named Mohoppu Arachchige Shriyaawathie Perera who was later known as Sriyani Chandrasena, at an audition programme that was conducted at Radio Celyon. They got married on July 26, 1946. Sriyani had a brief career as a singer, but largely, she became the devoted lifetime supporting partner for Chandrasena in his all musical creations and events throughout. They had three children Thilangani, Lalith and Darshani.

R A Chandrasena passed away in the early hours of March 1, 1980, after a brief heart illness. Sriyani continued Chandrasena’s vision and the practice at Chandrasena Sangeethaanayathanaya and prepared the youngest daughter Darshani in the music profression. Darshani was graduated in music at the Faculty of Esthetic Studies at University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and became a teaching professional in music.
Sriyani Chandrasena passed away on August 4, 2009.