Ramón Pagayon Santos (born 25 February 1941) is a Filipino composer, ethnomusicologist, and educator known for being the Philippines' foremost living exponent of contemporary Filipino classical music,[1][2] for work that expounds on "the aesthetic frameworks of Philippine and Southeast Asian artistic traditions,"[2] and for finding new uses of indigenous Philippine instruments.

[2] [3] A University Professor Emeritus of the composition and theory department at the College of Music of the University of the Philippines Diliman,[4] he was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines for music in 2014.

[3][4] In 1976, Santos began doing fieldwork among folk religious groups in Quezon, collecting and documenting their music.

[1] He later also did similar fieldwork among the Ibaloi, Mansaka, Bontoc, Yakan and Boholano peoples.

[2] The Philippines' National Commission on Culture and the Arts notes that as a result, Santos' compositions beginning in this period in his professional life were characterized by "the translation of indigenous musical systems into modern musical discourse.