Sydney Panikkar is a performing artist from a small town called Bloomsburg in Central Pennsylvania. Starting with dance lessons at a very young age, Sydney’s family and mentors began cultivating a strong passion for the arts and performance. By age 9, she had begun to study classical piano and participated in professional theatre productions as a child actress. At age 11 she began to compose her own music and learn to play French Horn. Hungry for experience and knowledge, she began classical voice lessons at age 13 with the careful guidance of Theresa Chyko. That year she went on to win the local bank’s musical competition, “Teen Star.” Modeled after American Idol, Sydney was the youngest to win and the first to do so with only original music. By this time she had been in numerous productions with The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble- A Christmas Story, The Landlover, Binky Rudich and the Two Speed Clock, The Stinky Cheeseman and other Fairly Stupid Tales, A Christmas Carol, and A Very Special Christmas Special as well as nonprofessional productions of musicals The Music Man and Into the Woods. Desiring to improve her songwriting, Sydney collaborated with Cassandra Pisieczko at age 14, composing and performing an underscore for the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Alongside of music tailored for the show, Sydney wrote and self recorded her debut album with the help of Todd Cummings, The Perfection in Imperfection. Discovering a few jazz CD’s passed down by her grandfather, Sydney discovered her passion for jazz. Singing for Bloomsburg University’s Big Band, she was able to nurture her love for the genre under the guidance of Dr. Stephan Clickard. After participating in All-State Jazz through PMEA in both 2017 and 2018, she was given the opportunity to tour Germany and the Czech Republic as a soloist with the big band and an alto in a vocal jazz quartet. Not forgetting her foundation in theatre, Sydney acted as Eponine in Central Columbia’s production of Les Miserables and was nominated for a Ray of Light award as best lead actress in a musical before graduating high school. After graduating Sydney collaborated with Eric Wunch and composed and performed underscoring for the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s production of The BFG. Currently, Sydney resides in Philadelphia, PA and is studying jazz performance at Boyer College of Music under the guidance of Ruth Naomi Floyd. In 2019, she took on the role of Anita in Community Theatre League’s production of West Side Story and is nominated for best actress in a musical through Broadway World’s regional awards. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, in the summer of 2020; she composed, self produced, and released The Library; exploring her personal experiences as a woman of color. Most recently, Sydney collaborated with guitarist and composer, Alec Charon, to release a fusion influenced, reimagined rendition of Jingle Bells.