The violist Ashan Pillai, born in Sri Lanka in 1969, received his academic musical training at Merchant Taylor's School in England.
He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music in London, initially in the junior department, and later pursued his higher degree, graduating with honors as a viola performer. He received all the viola awards during his time at the Academy, and later, he was granted scholarships and paid stays that led him to continue his musical studies in the United States. He studied at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) and later at the Juilliard School in New York and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, under the guidance of esteemed pedagogues Donald Mclnnes and Karen Tuttle.
Regarding his discography, Ashan Pillai has recorded extensively for EMI, Naxos, ASV, Altara, Verso, Meridian, Bel, Columna, RTVE, and Oehms Classics, including sonatas by Johannes Brahms, Arnold Bax, Claude Debussy, Lluís Benejam i Agell, Franz Schubert, and Robert Gerhard; as well as concertos by Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Lleonard Balada i Ibañez. Notable among his recordings are the 11 Sonatas para Viola del Palacio Real de Madrid, The Virtuoso Viola in Spain, Hoffmeister's Works for Viola (with Christopher Hogwood), and the string quintets recorded with Zukerman.
He has published "12 Estudios o Caprichos de mediana dificultad para viola solo" (1881) by José María Beltrán Fernández (1827–1907), produced by Clivis Publications. In 2016, he published the first edition of the 11 Sonatas para el Palacio Real de Madrid (1770-1819) for Boileau Publications, being the first one to record the first recording of this impressive collection of works for viola. He has also published "Sonata en Re" by Tomás Lestán (1884) for Edition Piles.
He won several awards in international competitions between 1994 and 1998, such as the Lionel Tertis, the International Competition of Rome, the Royal Overseas League, and the Park Lane Group Competition in London, as well as the Artists International in New York. These successes led him to debut at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London (1997/1999), and at Carnegie Hall in New York. He also participated in prominent international chamber music festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Pau Casals (Catalonia, Puerto Rico), Kuhmo (Finland), Ravinia, Aspen, Tanglewood, Sarasota (United States), Salzburg (Austria), The Proms (London), and many others. Additionally, he performed as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Andorran Chamber Orchestra, Czech Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, several Spanish orchestras, the Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt, and the I Musici of London and New York.
He has appeared as a soloist under the baton of Christian Zacharias, Eiji Oue, Andrew Parrott, Christopher Hogwood, Robert King, and Lawrence Foster. He has collaborated with artists like Lynn Harrell and Zacharias, as well as chamber ensembles such as the Kreutzer and Brodsky Quartets.
He was also co-principal viola of the English Chamber Orchestra (1995–2000), co-founding member of the Mobius Ensemble (London 1997–2006), principal viola of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (2000–2018), and violist of the Pinchas Zukerman String Quintet, and the Zukerman Chamber Players (2004–2010). Since 2001, he has been a viola professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). From 2009, he teaches at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, and from 2013, he serves as a guest professor at the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid. In 2014, he was appointed viola professor at the prestigious summer festival in Santiago de Compostela, Música en Compostela, specialising in Spanish music. For years, he has been associated with the oldest and most prominent festivals and courses in Spain, such as those in Cervera, Llanes, and Forum Musikae. In 2020, he was named Artist-in-Residence and guest professor at the Royal Academy of Music, University of London. The latter institution appointed him as a full professor in 2021.