Aashish Khan was born in 1939 at Maihar. His mother Zubeida Begum was Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's first wife. He was initiated into Hindustani music at the age of five by his grandfather Ust Allauddin Khan Baba. His training continued under the guidance of his father Ust Ali Akbar Khan and aunt Annapurna Devi.
He gave his debut public performance at the age of 13, with his grandfather, on the All India Radio "National Program", New Delhi and in the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen Music Conference", Calcutta. Since then he has performed at major venues of classical music and world music both in the Indian subcontinent and abroad.
Aashish Khan founded the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969 and fusion group "The Third Eye".
Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsha Ghar, and Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist with Maurice Jarre on John Huston's film The Man Who Would be King, David Lean's A Passage to India, and composed the music for Tapan Sinha's films, Joturgriha (he received Best Film Score Award for Jotugriha) and Aadmi Aurat.
During 1989-1990, Aashish Khan served as the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi.
Aashish Khan is a music teacher, currently serving as adjunct professor of Indian Classical Music at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, U.S., and as an adjunct professor of Music at the University of California at Santa Cruz, United States. He has formerly taught at the faculties of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Washington, Seattle. While pursuing a busy career as a concert artist and composer, he teaches students throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa, as well as India. Many of his students have established themselves as stage performers in India and abroad. Notable mention among them would be of Sarod players Anupam Shobhakar, Rick Henderson, Debanjan Bhattacharjee, Aditya Verma, Ranajit Sengupta and Siddhartha Banerjee (USA); Sitar player Amelia Maciszewski; Santoor player Dishari Chakraborty; and Rabab player Rishi Ranjan.
He has been awarded the Fellowship of the Illinois Arts Council, United States (2002) and Sangeet Natak Akademi award (2005). On 24 May 2007 Ustad Aashish Khan became the first ever Indian classical maestro to become a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the U.K.'s highest society in Asian arts and culture.