Pericles Kanaris was born in Athens, Greece where he began his study of classical piano at an early age. He won the B.E.S.T. scholarship from Berklee College of Music where he studied voice and composition with a concentration on Film Scoring (B.Mus. - Summa Cum Laude). During his studies at Berklee, he also studied piano and composition privately with Jazz guru Charlie Banacos. He is the recipient of the Barnes and Noble Award, and the Soren Christensen Award, both for outstanding musicianship during his presence at the writing division of Berklee. He also holds a M.Sc. in Mass Communication from Boston University and a B.A. in Media Studies from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England, where he wrote extensively on the potential of music as a medium of communication. He wrote his main master's thesis on The Communicative Nature of Music under the supervision of Roger Scruton, a world authority on the Philosophy of Music. He wrote a second thesis on The Contribution of Nino Rota's Music to the films of Federico Fellini, under the supervision of renowned American screenwriter Stephen Geller.

He has composed music for various international media. Among other distinguished credits, his composition “Project Innocence”, originally written for film, was given its world-premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall in May 2007. Greek music has equally been a great source of passion and inspiration since the beginning of his career. In 2000 he formed the Contemporary Greek Music Ensemble which he led with memorable success in major concert venues of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the composer and lyricist of the song “Stin Ygia Mas” that became the title theme for the acclaimed Greek music television program. He is the producer of “Music of Greece”,  the first compilation of Greek music ever released by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the reopening of its world-renowned Greek and Roman galleries in April 2007. In 2008, building on his Boston experience of presenting Greek music to audiences in America, Kanaris formed Synolon, a New York-based ensemble. Synolon consistently sold out the world music venue Drom in the East Village for consecutive seasons and was credited with changing the presentation of Greek music in the city. 

In October 2014 he released his debut album "Aoratos", seven original songs that were composed on the verses of acclaimed Greek poet Manos Eleftheriou and sang by a distinct list of prominent Greek vocalists such as Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Kostas Makedonas, Rita Antonopoulou and Lamprini Karakosta. The album featured some of the finest musicians of the New York and Athens scenes, as well as a collaboration with multi-Grammy award-winner Neil Dorfsman. It premiered at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York and sold out the historic Pallas theater in Athens, garnering great reviews from the Greek and International press. The International New York Times recognized his music as “a Greek Identity with Global Sounds”. In the Spring of 2019, the composer presented the “Road to Athens” series at New York’s premiere World Music venue, DROM, as well at the Consulate General of Greece, with great success. These concerts were a precursor to his performance at the prestigious Summer Nostos Festival at the STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION CULTURAL CENTER in Athens where he received a standing ovation from a full house audience. Pericles Kanaris called this “a milestone for his career” as he presented material from two new collections of songs. One collection is inspired by classic poets such as Constantine P. Kavafy and T.S Eliot and the other by unreleased material from contemporary poets, such as Manos Eleftheriou and the younger generation of Greek poets.

In 2020, he taught at New York University a new class which he created, entitled “Songs of the Underdog”: American Blues meets Greek Rebetiko”. He is currently teaching the same course at the American College of Greece, in Athens.

In June 2022, he returned to live performances for the first time after the pandemic with a concert at New York’s Symphony Space entitled “Up For Air”. The concert was broadcasted around the world through ERT World (TV) and Voice of Greece (radio), the satellite channels of Greek Public Broadcasting. The broadcast made history as the first ever music performance of a Greek artist of the Diaspora to be covered by National Public Television.