Michael Joseph Guzikov

Born in Shklov (now Sklou, Belarus) to a family of musicians, Michael Joseph (Mikhl Yosef, also Yekhiel Mikhl) Guzikov made inroads for traditional klezmer musicians into broader European music with his performances on the tsimbl, a variety of xylophone. The instrument remained popular in itinerant bands in Europe from the High Middles Ages until the early nineteenth century, when it caught on among bourgeois composers for use in symphony orchestras. Guzikov himself attracted the attention of Felix Mendelssohn and other renowned composers on his tours of the Russian Empire and Europe.