1785 in music - WikiHQ

Events

January 1 – Giovanni Paisiello officially leaves his employment at the court of Catherine the Great in Russia, having returned to Italy some months earlier.
January 12 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail is produced by impresario Pasquale Bondini's company in Dresden.
January 15 – The first performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn (or possibly just three of them) is given in Mozart's own home.
February 7 – Leopold Mozart leaves Munich for Vienna, with a pupil, Heinrich Marchand, in tow.
March 7 – King Ferdinand I of Naples awards a lifetime annual salary of 1,200 ducats to Giovanni Paisiello, on the understanding that the latter writes one new opera every year.
October 13 – The Lord Chamberlain, James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, refuses to grant a licence to Giovanni Gallini for his Italian Opera House in London, unless he appoints a Mr. Crawford as deputy manager.
October 26 – Joseph Haydn receives a visit from Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda, to whom he gives a guided tour of Schloss Esterházy.
Composer Supply Belcher settles in Maine.
Opera composer relocates to London from his native Italy.
Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany appoints Filippo Maria Gherardeschi organist and maestro di cappella at the Chiesa Conventuale dei Cavalieri di S Stefano at Pisa.
Violinist Regina Strinasacchi marries Johann Conrad Schlick, cellist & Konzertmeister of the Gotha ducal band.

"Cara sposa", music by Johann Christian Bach from the cantata Rinaldo ed Armide (lost)
"Song of the Page", music by William Shield from Follies of a Day, or The Marriage of Figaro
Pierre-Joseph Candeille – Pizarre, ou La conquête de Pérou, Opéra, Paris (3 May)
Luigi Cherubini – La finta principessa, King's Theatre, London (9 April)
Domenico Cimarosa – La donna sempre al suo peggior s'appiglia
Prosper-Didier Deshayes – Le Faux serment
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Der Hufschmied (Der gelehrte Hufschmied) (German version, text translated by J. C. Kaffka, of Il maniscalco, 1775), Breslau (13 May)
Robert Jephson – Campaign, or Love in the East Indies, Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London (12 May)
Thomas Linley
Hurly-Burly, or The Fairy of the Well, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London (26 December)
Strangers at Home, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London (8 December)
L'infanta supposta, Teatro Ducale, Modena
The Choleric Fathers, Covent Garden, London (10 November)
Omai, or A Trip Round the World, Covent Garden, London (20 December)
Stephen Storace – Gli sposi malcontenti, Burgtheater, Vienna (1 June)

February 2 – Isabella Colbran, coloratura soprano and composer (died 1845)
March 3
, composer (died 1849)
Giovanni Ricordi, violinist and opera publisher (died 1853)
March 6 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer (died 1857)
March 19 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer (died 1853)
April 4 – Bettina Brentano, composer and writer (died 1859)
April 19 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, composer (died 1858)
August 18 – Friedrich Wieck, piano teacher, father of Clara Schumann (died 1873)
September 5 – Thomas Adams, organist and composer (died 1858)
September 11 – Alpheus Babcock, American piano maker (died 1842)
November 2 – Friedrich Kalkbrenner, pianist and composer (died 1849)
date unknown
, German-born composer and cellist (died 1867)
Zofia Dmuszewska, Polish actor and opera singer (died 1807)