Sean Panikkar was born and raised in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, the second son of Sri Lankan immigrants—a mixed Sinhalese and Indian father, and a Tamil mother. Panikkar first began studying voice as a high schooler with Juilliard-trained soprano Li Ping Liu. He went on to study at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance where he studied with Daniel Washington and Luretta Bybee. After receiving his undergraduate degree in vocal performance, he continued at the university to pursue his master's degree in the same. He went on to be a part of the Merola training program with the San Francisco Opera, and later became an Adler Fellow with the company.
Career
Panikkar has performed several roles with Metropolitan Opera, including Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette under the baton of Plácido Domingo, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor conducted by Marco Armiliato, Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos led by Kirill Petrenko, and Prunier in La rondine. Further credits include roles in The Queen of Spades, Le pauvre matelot, The Maid of Orleans, Manon Lescaut, Tristan und Isolde, Fidelio, Norma, and Die Zauberflöte with the San Francisco Opera, as well as Nabucco at Washington National Opera, the title role of Béatrice et Bénédict with Opera Boston, Weill's Lost in the Stars at the Glimmerglass Festival, Salome at Washington National Opera and the Saito Kinen Festival, and Lensky in Eugene Onegin and Count Almaviva in The Ghosts of Versailles with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. During the 2013/14 season, Panikkar sang Rodolfo in La bohème at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Macduff in Macbeth at Palm Beach Opera, and return engagements with Pittsburgh Opera as Tamino in The Magic Flute and with Fort Worth Opera as Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles. In the 2014/15 season, he sang in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Metropolitan Opera., and in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's CO2 at Teatro alla Scala. In 2013, Panikkar was recruited to join the classical crossover group FORTE during season eight of America's Got Talent; he replaced Hana Ryu, who did not qualify to participate under the show's rules. Panikkar has released two albums as a member of FORTE: their self-titled debut in 2013, and The Future Classics in 2016. The highlights of 2018 for Panikkar were joining the Salzburg Festival, performing in The Bassarids, and taking the leading role, as Gandhi, in Philip Glass’s opera “Satyagraha". As Panikkar made his debut at the Salzburg Festival, he was also named "Artist of the Week" by Opera World. 2019 began for Panikkar with a four night run of the reunited AGT finalist lineup of Forte at the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center in The Villages, Florida. Immediately after that run, Panikkar made his first trip to his family's homeland of Sri Lanka for ‘A Celebration of Song’ with the Sunera Foundation, alongside soprano Tharanga Goonatilleke and pianist Rohan De Silva. Panikkar began May with the performance of Nadir in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” at Kansas City Lyric Opera. In summer 2019, Panikkar will star in “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” at the Festival d’Aix-En-Provence, named #5 in Opera Wire’s Ten must see Operas for the Summer Season 2019. For the 2019-2020 Opera Season, Panikkar will open the season for Komische Oper Berlin as Dionysus in Hans Werner Henze’s “The Bassarids.” November 2020 will find Panikkar headlining Bizet’s “Carmen” for the English National Opera. Panikkar has been honored by the George London Foundation with the 2007 Robert Jacobson Memorial Award and a 2009 George London Award; he was a First Prize winner of the 2010 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and second-place winner in the 2009 International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition.
Discography
Shalimar the Clown, with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, tenor soloist
