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Events

  • March 17 – Anton Rubinstein is named first director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, which opens in September. Tchaikovsky is in the first incoming class.
  • March 24 – Fromental Halévy's funeral, in Paris, is attended by an estimated 15,000 people.
  • May 17 – Teatro Comunale Florence inaugurated as an open-air amphitheatre, the Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele, with a production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
  • May 21 – Edvard Grieg gives his first concert in his home town of Bergen, Norway.
  • "Blaydon Races" – traditional folk tune, 1862 lyrics by George Ridley
  • Christ Is Risen! Christ Is Risen! – Archer Thompson Gurney
  • Tyneside Songs – Thomas Allan (publisher)

Classical music

  • Alexander Borodin – Piano Quintet in C minor
  • Johannes Brahms - First two movements of the Cello Sonata No. 1
  • Emanuel Chabrier – Souvenirs de Brunehaut
  • Felix Draeseke – Fantasiestücke in Walzerform, opus 3: Nr. 1 in B; Nr. 2 in A-flat
  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk
  • Union, Op. 48
  • Home Sweet Home, Op.51
  • Le Papillon
  • Asger Hamerik – Quintet
  • Ferdinand Laub – Concert-Polonaise, Op. 8
  • Karol Józef Lipiński – 2 Impromptus, Op.34 (published posthumously)
  • Franz Liszt
  • Phantasiestück über Motive aus 'Rienzi', S. 439
  • Berceuse
  • Henry Charles Litolff – Scherzo, Op. 115
  • Giacomo Meyerbeer – Fest-Ouvertüre im Marschstyl
  • Cesare Pugni – The Pharaoh's Daughter, ballet
  • Joachim Raff – Piano Quintet, Op. 107 in A minor
  • Napoleon Henri Reber – Piano Trio No. 4 'Sérénade', Op. 25
  • Camille Saint-Saëns – Mazurka No. 1 for piano in G minor, Op. 21
  • Henri Vieuxtemps – Violin Concerto No. 5, Op. 37
  • Giuseppe Verdi - Hymn of the Nations
  • Henri Wieniawski
  • Etudes-Caprices, Op. 18
  • Fantaisie orientale, Op. 24

Opera

  • Julius Benedict – The Lily of Killarney
  • Hector Berlioz – Béatrice et Bénédict
  • Frederic Clay – Court and Cottage (libretto by Tom Taylor)
  • Charles Gounod – La reine de Saba
  • Franz von Suppé – Die Kartenschlägerin
  • Giuseppe Verdi – La forza del destino

Births

  • January 29 – Frederick Delius, composer (d. 1934)
  • January 30 – Walter Damrosch, conductor (d. 1950)
  • February 13 – Karel Weis, composer (d. 1944)
  • February 17 – Edward German, composer (d. 1936)
  • March 19 – Jef Denyn, carillon player (d. 1941)
  • March 22 – William H. Rieger, tenor (d. 1930)
  • March 21 – Elmer Samuel Hosmer, composer (d. 1945)
  • April 5 – Louis Ganne, conductor (died 1923)
  • May 2 – Maurice Emmanuel, composer (d. 1938)
  • June 3 – Joseph Humfrey Anger, composer (died 1913)
  • June 27 – May Irwin, actress and singer (d. 1938)
  • August 10 – Ernest Richard Kroeger, composer (died 1934)
  • August 11 – Carrie Jacobs-Bond, US songwriter (d. 1946)
  • August 22 – Claude Debussy, composer (d. 1918)
  • August 29 – Maurice Maeterlinck, lyricist (died 1949)
  • September 25 – Léon Boëllmann, composer and organist (d. 1897)
  • October 10 – Arthur De Greef, composer and pianist (d. 1940)
  • October 15 – Conrad Ansorge, composer (died 1930)
  • November 1 – Johan Wagenaar, organist and composer (d. 1941)
  • December 9 – Karel Kovařovic, composer (died 1920)
  • December 18 – Moriz Rosenthal, pianist (d. 1946)
  • December 23 – Hans Wessely, composer (died 1926)
  • date unknown – Marcelle Lender, French singer-dancer and entertainer (d. 1926)

Deaths

  • February 5 – Ignaz Franz Castelli, dramatist and songwriter (b. 1780)
  • February 7 – František Škroup, composer (b. 1801)
  • February 16 – Leopold Schefer, composer and poet (b. 1784)
  • March 17 – Fromental Halévy, composer (b. 1799)
  • April 7 – Sydney Nelson, composer and arranger (born 1800)
  • May 21 – Edwin Pearce Christy, founder of Christy's Minstrels (b. 1815) (suicide)
  • May 23 – Friedrich Ruthardt, oboist and composer (b. 1800)
  • May 25 – Johann Nestroy, singer and actor (b. 1801)
  • July 2 – Charles Mayer, pianist and composer (b. 1799)
  • August 31 – Ignaz Assmayer, composer (b. 1790)
  • November 1 – Eleonora Zrza, Danish opera soprano (b. 1797)
  • December 2 – Marius Gueit, French organist, cellist and composer (b. 1808)
  • December 24 – Joseph Funk, composer and music teacher (b. 1778)
  • date unknown
  • Jon Eriksson Helland, Hardanger fiddle maker (b. 1790)
  • Luigi Piccioli, singer and music teacher (b. 1812)
  • Geltrude Righetti, operatic contralto (b. 1793)

References