At the School of Music, Theatre & Dance there he studied with Daniel Washington and Luretta Bybee and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in vocal performance.
[5] 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.
[8] In the 2014/15 season, he sang in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Metropolitan Opera[9] and in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's CO2 at Teatro alla Scala.
[18][19] Of his experience in that role he said:[20] As the first brown person to sing Gandhi, it brought an extra level of emotion to some of the oppressive scenes that doesn’t necessarily come across quite as powerfully when a white singer is doing it.Panikkar began 2019 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.
He then visited his family's homeland of Sri Lanka for the first time to present song recitals with soprano Tharanga Goonatilleke and pianist Rohan De Silva.