Ricardo Kanji was a Brazilian recorder player, flutist, conductor, and luthier. He began piano studies at age seven and later took up the recorder with Lavinia Viotti. At fifteen, he studied flute with João Dias Carrasqueira and joined the Philharmonic Orchestra São Paulo. In 1970, he moved to the Netherlands to specialize in Baroque and Classical music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague under Frans Brüggen and Frans Vester, winning the First International Recorder Competition in Bruges that same year. Kanji was a founding member of Musikantiga and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and taught at the Royal Conservatory from 1973 to 1995. Returning to Brazil in 1995, he founded Vox Brasiliensis. He also recorded extensively, conducted internationally. He passed away in São Paulo on February 24, 2025, at the age of 76.
