Felipe Paccagnella takes the melody in your head and carries it, by hand, to the finished recording. Tap a few notes on this staff, then scroll.
One melody, nothing else. Tap the staff to change it: this is the part you bring.
Fe conducting a string session: the end of the process this page just ran, with real players in a real room.
Most music stops as a voice memo. A melody hummed into a phone, a hymn you always wanted to hear another way, a song with no band behind it. Fe's work is to not let it stop there.
Each stage adds to the same phrase. Bring a finished song that needs strings, or a hum that needs everything.
Original music written to a brief: a song, an instrumental, a theme for a film or a service. Fe writes from simple, emotional melodies to fugue-like pieces with odd meters and dense harmony.
Your melody, re-dressed. Hymns in bossa nova, jazz standards with new harmony, a pop tune for a live band. The tune stays yours; everything under it is built to carry it.
From piano sketch to full score and parts, ready for real players. Strings, winds and brass written idiomatically, so a session reads it down the first time.
Recording, mixing and mastering in his studio in Maryland. Fe plays most of the instruments himself, which keeps a small project moving and a large one coherent.
Live bands, choirs and recording sessions, led from the piano or the podium. Years of directing live music for events, from church reunions to a world-stage program.
Piano, theory and composition, for people who want to write their own next phrase. In person around Gaithersburg, Maryland, or online.
Wammie 2026Hymns people have sung all their lives, re-harmonized and played in bossa nova. Named Best Gospel/Inspirational Album at the 37th Annual Wammie Music Awards.
Recording the strings for I will be waiting for you: Fe's orchestration, read down by a Nashville section.
Fe started on a toy drum set his parents bought so he would stop hitting the furniture. He grew into a pianist, then taught himself the instruments around the piano so he could write for them honestly: guitar, bass, strings, voice. Today he composes, arranges, orchestrates, records and mixes, and conducts the sessions where it all gets played.
He studied songwriting at Berklee and psychology at the University of Maryland, holds a recognition in music therapy, and has spent years directing live music for choirs and events in the Washington area. His faith is at the center of his work; much of it was written for people to sing together.
A voice memo is enough to start. Tell Fe what it is, who it is for, and where it needs to end up: a demo, a single, a full session.
