Collection: Oginski, Michal Kleofas

Michał Kleofas Ogiński (1765 – 1833) was born in Guzów in Mazovia (west of Warsaw) in the Kingdom of Poland. His father, Andrzej, was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman from the Ogiński family and governor of Troki, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His mother, Paulina Szembek (1740–1797), was the daughter of a Polish magnate, Marek Szembek, whose ancestors were Austrian, and Jadwiga Rudnicka, who was of Lithuanian descent. His first introduction to music arose during a visit to relatives at Słonim where Michał Kazimierz Ogiński had a contemporary European theatre that hosted opera and ballet productions. Michał Kleofas received an Enlightenment gentleman's education. He studied music with Osip Kozlovsky and took violin lessons from Giovanni Battista Viotti and Pierre Baillot.