The New York Times has praised his performance of Beethoven’s esoteric Diabelli Variations as “absolutely first-class, simultaneously idiomatic and original,”[1] and the Washington Post has written that “Pagano is such a fine performer that any opportunity to hear him should be seized.”[2] Born in São Paulo, he began his piano studies at the age of eight with Lina Pires de Campos at the Magda Tagliaferro School, and at 16, he soloed with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Eleazar de Carvalho.
He has also performed alongside internationally renowned musicians such as Maria João Pires, Emmanuele Baldini, Gérard Caussé, Pierre Fournier, János Starker, Thomas Friedli, Albor Rosenfeld, and with ensembles such as the St. Petersburg Quartet and the Jacques Thibaud Trio.
In Portugal he has also served as the artistic director of the Belgais Center for the Arts from 2001 to 2002, Piano Studies Coordinator at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (2002–2010), and a collaborator on special projects with the Ministry of Culture (2003–2007).
His stylistic versatility is reflected in his choice of repertoire in each country where he performs, for he has frequently introduced works by Villa-Lobos, Pousseur, Camargo Guarnieri, or Almeida Prado to German audiences.
And Brazilian music, which is often regarded as more exotic by international pianists and typically represented by 20th-century nationalist composers like Villa-Lobos or Guarnieri, has frequently taken center stage in Pagano's career.