Mário Pacheco's assured and engaging guitar playing and musical composition is no accident. It reflects dedication, commitment and a special affection for the art of music and fado in particular, founded on a family tradition.

Son of guitarist António Pacheco, who accompanied some of the greatest fado singers, Mário Pacheco soon unravelled the mysteries of guitar playing and the melodic paths of fado composition. This innate learning will be intensified and expanded in the study of solfeggio and classical guitar at the Lisbon Music Academy. However, it is the Portuguese guitar that captures him, the instrument that, as he says, "most expressively defines fado". He studied the great guitarists hard: Armandinho, Carlos Paredes and Fontes Rocha.

The foundations were laid for him to build his own style both as a performer and accompanying great voices such as Amália Rodrigues, Alfredo Marceneiro, Hermínia Silva, Max, Tristão da Silva, Ada de Castro, António Mourão, Tonicha, Vasco Rafael, Lenita Gentil, Maria da Fé, Cidália Moreira, Maria Valejo, Fernando Maurício, Beatriz da Conceição, Alcindo de Carvalho, Maria Armanda, Vicente da Câmara, José da Câmara, António Pinto Basto, Nuno da Câmara Pereira, Paulo de Carvalho, Mísia, Camané, Cuca Roseta, Mariza and Carlos do Carmo.

With the musical momentum he had, it was inevitable that the desire and inspiration to compose with a full understanding of fado forms and harmonies would emerge - Carlos Zel, Paulo de Carvalho, Ana Sofia Varela, Rodrigo Costa Félix, Mísia, Jorge Fernando, Paulo Bragança, Joana Amendoeira, Sandra Correia, Camané, Carminho, José Maria, Sara Correia, Cuca Roseta, Mariza and Carlos do Carmo all sing his melodies.
 

In 1992 he released his first album, "Um outro olhar", which sought to show how Mário Pacheco's music reflected another vision of nostalgia and how longing and sadness intersect harmoniously, opening up to other musical languages, since fado is also a reflection and synthesis of various other melodies. This album marked a turning point in the history of Portuguese guitar instrumental music.

The CD/DVD "Mário Pacheco - A Música e a Guitarra" mirrors an "out-of-doors outing" in the aristocratic setting of the National Palace of Queluz. In this show, Mário Pacheco remembers his "masters": Carlos Paredes and José Fontes Rocha, composing two instrumentals in their honour, and invites fado singers to interpret their melodies: Camané, Rodrigo Costa Félix, Ana Sofia Varela and Mariza, four of the most important names in fado. This is a magical setting. On the Robillion staircase, built in 1764, emotions, feelings, images of life parade, fado happens in the words of poets and in the inspired music and guitar of Mário Pacheco.

The Portuguese guitar, composition and fado atmospheres continue to inspire him and guide his life.

Mário Pacheco had, in the meantime, found a place in historic Alfama, next to Lisbon's centuries-old Cathedral, where he created a place of reference for fado and also for artistic creation. He called it the "Fado Club". In reality, it was a club as a space for socialising, gathering and exchanging ideas in a fado atmosphere. This space, where fado took place every night, lived up to tradition.

However, the cycle that Mário Pacheco created at Clube de Fado comes to an end in July 2019.

In order to devote himself more intensely to his musical career, both as a performer and composer, after 25 years of total dedication, he sells the 'Clube', and the cycle comes to an end.

Mário Pacheco loosens his ties once more and his guitar starts travelling again...

Mário Pacheco starts composing again and in 2020 he releases the album "Livre" with production by Diogo Clemente and special guest appearances by Javier Limon, Jaques Morelenbaum and Gustavo Santaolalla. Walter Rolo, Ruben Alves, Joao Barradas, Ricardo Toscano and Marino de Freitas are also guests on this album.

"My life is Fado, my world is Music and my desire is to be "Free".