Besides belonging to a traditionalist family of musicians-his predecessor Basat Khan was a direct descendent of mia Tansen from the nale line-Irfan holds a Sangeet Visharad (B Music) and Sangeet Praveen (M-Mus.) In his M. Music from the Prayag Sangit Samiti, the University of Music, Allahabad he topped the list and was awarded the gold medal. He also holds a B.A. Degree (History) from Kanpur University. Irfan was choosen by ICCR and External Affairs" Ministry of India and sent on a deputation to Kabul, Afganistan where he served as a sarod and sitar teacher for three years (1984-1987) Awarded the title of "Sur-Mani" by the prestigious Sur Singer Samsad of Bombay, India, Irfan has performed widely in India, Germany, USA and also in neighbour countries. He was invited to perform at the Festival of Sarod under the auspices of the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Memorial Society at Delhi in 1988 and at SRA both in Calcutta and Bombay.
Recently he was invited by Kings College, London a programme organised on Urdu and Persian manucript of 17th and 19th century along with he also attended programmes in Berlin (Germany) and Yeimer (Germany).Irfan was attached to Assam Valley School, Tezpur, as (1995-2002) a senior teacher of music as the head of the Head of the Department, and at Delh Public School, Numaligarh (2002-2009). and was teaching sarod and sitar at Afganishtan National School of music, Kabul and trying to revive sarod and music in Afganistan (2010-2013). Recently he Performed extensively n USA, Germany and Europe where his performances were highly applauded.On 2015 he received a LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD from Dakshin Kolkata Nritya O Sanskriti Parisad.