Ahilan Hatti is a senior at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California and will be attending the University of British Columbia. He is a ganda bandhan disciple of Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya. He initially started training on santoor at the age of seven with Rupesh Kotecha. Ahilan has also learned Hindustani classical music and Western Jazz from Paul Livingstone for several years. Paul gave Ahilan an amazing foundation in the art which now helps him succeed with the maestro Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya. In addition to annual trips to Kolkata, Ahilan has traveled to perform in several cities across the United States and in Mexico, and will be performing in Kolkata and Mysuru in July 2024. His academic interests include linguistic anthropology, endangered language revitalization, and urban forestry.