His compositional and conducting studies at the Royal College of Music led him subsequently to Bristol University with Derek Bourgeois.
In 1989, he worked with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra abroad in a series of successful concerts held as part of the Istanbul International Festival of the same year.
From 2000 to the present, he has worked with music engineer Steven Price on various advertising campaigns for Blockbuster, Vodafone, Nokia, Marmite and Zurich Insurance, to name a few.
Kashif's first major work was for Mediaset, which he composed the new idents for Rete 4 launched on 20 September 1999, created by British design agency E&P Associates.
Kashif co-wrote the original score for the feature film, The Criminal (2000), with Mark Sayer-Wade, his partner at The Music Sculptors.
He conducted the world premiere of his composition, The Garden of the Prophet (2000) with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Arts Centre.
In 2004 he both produced and arranged Vanessa-Mae's Choreography for Sony Classical Records and Maksim Mrvica's Variations Part I&II for EMI.
Kashif worked with the London Metropolitan Orchestra when recording 3 tracks for Amy Nuttall in her crossover album for EMI Classics: Best Days (2005).
He used 33 strings, flutes, oboes, horns, trumpets and trombones for the songs, and they were recorded by engineer Geoff Foster at AIR Lyndhurst Hall.
In March 2002, Kashif received a commission from the NFYM to write a song for youth: Drop In the Ocean, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe.
"The well known phrase 'a drop in the ocean' to me represents a universal choice for humanity; either to view ourselves as separate and insignificant or each of us as a unique part of the whole, the 'ocean' of consciousness.
It was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, and was so successful that it received a further performance at the Commonwealth Day Observance at Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
This concert was attended by Jer Bulsara (Freddie Mercury's mother), drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May.
After being recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 2002,[3] Queen Symphony was nominated Album of the Year in the 2003 Classical Brit Awards.
Others have considered the choral elements of the Queen Symphony to be a nod to the rock band's own lavish tendencies, in addition to Kashif's spell as musical director of the London Amadeus Choir.
The third movement is a Concertante Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, based on the song "Mad Man Moon", and is the longest piece in the suite (at 16 minutes 40 seconds long).