Sean Panikkar

Early years

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.

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

As a member of FORTE