Richard Hildner Armacanqui was born in Madison, Wisconsin to an American father and a Peruvian mother. His mother’s family gradually emigrated to the U.S. and he began learning Andean guitar with his grandfather and uncles from a young age where huayno music was part of every family gathering.
His love for Jazz began with his American grandfather who played drums and harmonica in Kansas City and when he went to college in N.C. he mentored with Thelonious Monk’s saxophonist Paul Jeffrey and was awarded the Lionel Hampton Endowment Award from Duke University. Upon returning to Madison WI he was part of the Black Music Ensemble under the direction of the legendary bassist Richard Davis.
He then went on to study Afro-Peruvian music with the legendary ambassador of the Peruvian Cajón, Juan Medrano Cotito and they have performed together extensively in the U.S. and in Peru. He studied in Peru with one the fathers of Afro-Peruvian guitar, the late Maestro Carlos Hayre Ramirez.
His Afro-Peruvian music group Golpe Tierra that he co-founded with Peruvian-American bassist Nick Moran has played several times at the Camaguey Jazz Festival in Cuba and has toured India as musical ambassadors with the U.S. State Dept. He has been a working musician based in Madison WI for almost 20 years and you can hear him playing every single week in countless ensembles (La Combi, Grupo Rebulu, Grupo Balanca, Betsy Ezell Quintet) playing genres of music from Salsa, Timba, Bachata, Merengue to Bossa Nova, and Brazilian Pagode. He has also played with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a live version of the Pixar movie Coco. With his sister Natalia Hildner Armacanqui he has reformed the duet of Andean music his uncle formed years ago, Duo Pukra, and they share their rich Andean heritage with communities all over the midwest.