Ivan's father Ostap was trained as a tailor, but eventually became a professional French horn and percussion player in the court orchestra of Tsar Peter III.
Ivan studied under Tito Porta with other Italian influences being Domenico dall’Oglio and Pietro Peri.
He was a musician at the Russian court, of which he later became kapellmeister, from 1765 and he taught violin at the Yekaterinoslav Musical Academy, founded by Potemkin in 1785.
After Potemkin's death Khandoshkin was forced to resign by Giuseppe Sarti who was considered his rival, and returned to St. Petersburg in 1789.
[4] The so-called "Khandoshkin viola concerto in C Major, written in 1801" published for the first time by the State Publishing House, Moscow, in 1947 and released in the former Soviet Union on Melodya, with Rudolf Barshai playing viola and conducting the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, actually is not by Khandoshkin, but a musical hoax by Mikhail Goldstein.