Events February 17 – Franz Liszt gives the first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Hector Berlioz in Weimar. March–June – Richard Wagner stays in London to conduct a series of concerts. June 13 - Twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi "Les vêpres siciliennes" (The Sicilian Vespers) is premiered in Paris. July 5 – Jacques Offenbach inaugurates performances of operettas as director of his own theater, the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. Late autumn – Mily Balakirev meets Mikhail Glinka in Saint Petersburg. Their friendship cements the former's ambition to foster Russian nationalist music. November 27 – Piano Trio No. 1 of Brahms is given its first public performance at Dodsworth's Hall in Manhattan on Broadway at 11th Street. It is the earliest performance of Brahms' music in the United States December 3 – The Piano Trio in G minor by Bedřich Smetana is given its first public performance in Prague. Tchaikovsky takes private music lessons with Rudolph Kündinger, who tells Tchaikovsky's father that he sees nothing to suggest a future composer.
Bands formed Black Dyke Mills Band re-formed after failure of its immediate predecessor, the Queenshead Band in Queensbury, West Yorkshire, England.
Popular music Stephen Foster – "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming" George Martin Lane – "The Lone Fish Ball" Caroline Norton – "Juanita" words Septimus Winner (as "Alice Hawthorne") music Richard Milburn – "Listen to the Mocking Bird"
Classical music Georges Bizet – Symphony in C Franz Berwald – Piano Concerto in D Eduard Franck – String Quartet in F minor op. 49 () Charles Gounod – Symphony No. 1 in D Stephen Heller 2 Tarantelles, Op.85 Im Walde, Op.86 Friedrich Hermann – Capriccio No.1 for 3 Violins, Op.2 Franz Liszt Book 1 of Années de pèlerinage Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H Les préludes, S.97 Prometheus, S.99 3 Lieder aus Schillers "Wilhelm Tell", S.292 Wie singt die Lerche schön, S.312 Anton Rubinstein – Quintet for Piano and Winds Op. 55 (probably from this year) Camille Saint-Saëns Six Bagatelles for piano, Op. 3 Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 14 Bedřich Smetana – Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 Louis Spohr – 6 Gesänge, Op.154
Opera George Frederick Bristow – Rip van Winkle Fromental Halévy – Jacques Offenbach – one-act operettas Ba-ta-clan Les deux aveugles Giuseppe Verdi – Les vêpres siciliennes
Musical theatre Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (Music: James Gaspard Maeder, Book and Lyrics: John Brougham) Broadway production opened Wallack's Lyceum Theatre on December 24 and transferred to the Bowery Theatre on June 28, 1856. Featuring John Brougham as John Smith.
Births January 20 – Ernest Chausson, composer (d. 1899) February 15 – Gustav Hollaender, composer (died 1915) February 18 – Vera Timanova, Russian pianist March 12 – Eduard Birnbaum, cantor (died 1920) April 18 – Josef Gruber, composer (died 1933) May 2 – Theodore Moses Tobani, composer (died 1933) May 9 – Julius Röntgen, composer (d. 1932) May 10 – Carl Kiefert, conductor (died 1937) May 11 – Anatoly Lyadov, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1914) June 5 – Hanuš Wihan, cellist (died 1920) June 17 – Fritz Kauffmann, composer (died 1934) July 25 – Edward Solomon, pianist, conductor and composer (died 1895) August 2 – Cornélie van Zanten, opera singer and teacher (d. 1946) August 27 – Domenico Salvatori, castrato singer (d. 1909) September 6 – Ferdinand Hummel, composer (died 1928) September 9 – Michele Esposito, pianist and composer (d. 1929) October 16 – William Barclay Squire, musicologist (died 1927) October 30 – Károly Aggházy, composer (died 1918) November 1 – Guido Adler, musicologist (died 1941) November 6 – Paul Kalisch, singer (d. 1946) December 7 – Gunhild Rosén, ballerina December 23 – Alan Gray, composer (died 1935) December 26 – Arnold Mendelssohn, composer (died 1933)
Deaths January 25 – Gaetano Rossi, librettist (b. 1774) February 1 – Claus Harms, researcher of Lutheran hymns (b. 1778) February 27 – Louis Lambillotte, composer and music palaeographer (b. 1796) March 17 – Ramon Carnicer, conductor and composer (b. 1789) April 12 – Pedro Albéniz, pianist and composer (b. 1795) April 30 – Henry Rowley Bishop, composer (b. 1786) July 19 – Karl Keller, composer and flautist (b. 1784) September 27 – August Lanner, conductor and composer (b. 1835) November 9 – Domenico Cosselli, operatic bass-baritone (b. 1801) November 21 – Olea Crøger, collector of Norwegian folk tunes (b. 1801) November 25 – Thomas Commuck, composer (born 1804) December 2 – Frédéric Bérat, songwriter and composer (b. 1801) Marie Antoinette Petersén, singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (b. 1771)
References