March 5 – Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg sets up in business as a piano manufacturer in New York City, and the firm of Steinway and Sons is born.
October – Louis Niedermeyer reorganizes and re-opens the school known as the École Choron, which becomes the École Niedermeyer.
October 1 – The piano manufacturer C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik is founded by Carl Bechstein in Berlin.
Julius Blüthner founds Blüthner (piano manufacturer) in Leipzig, Germany.
October 22 - The overture to Tannhäuser is performed in Boston Music Hall by the Germania Musical Society conducted by Carl Bergmann. It is the first American performance.
November 1 - Richard Wagner begins composing the music for the The Ring of the Nibelung.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk returns the United States after eleven years in Europe.
Brahms meets Joseph Joachim and Robert and Clara Schumann.
"Farewell My Lilly Dear" by Stephen Foster
"My Cottage Home" w.m. Alice Hawthorne
"My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster
"P'tit quinquin" (in Picard) by Alexandre Desrousseaux
Louis Moreau Gottschalk – The Banjo, Op. 15
Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
Hungarian Rhapsodies 1-15
Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich – F-A-E Sonata
Franz Berwald, Piano Trio No. 4 in C major
Franz Berwald, Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor
Camille Saint-Saëns, Piano Quartet in E major
Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 1 in E♭ major
Henryk Wieniawski, Violin Concerto No. 1 (Wieniawski)
Charles Gounod, Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach, later known as Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
Johannes Brahms - Piano Sonata No. 1 (Brahms), Piano Sonata No. 3 (Brahms)
William Henry Fry - Santa Claus, Christmas Symphony
Victor Massé – Les noces de Jeannette
Karel Miry – Anne Mie (opera in 1 act, premiered on October 9 in Antwerp)
Giuseppe Verdi
Il trovatore (premiered on January 19 at Teatro Apollo in Rome)
La traviata (premiered on March 6 at La Fenice in Venice)
May 17 – Carolina Östberg, opera singer (d. 1929)
July 24 – Alessandro Parisotti, composer and music editor (d. 1913)
November 23 – Giuseppina Bozzachi, ballerina (d. 1870)
December 22 – Teresa Carreño, pianist, singer, conductor and composer (d. 1917)
December 30 – André Messager, composer (d. 1929)
date unknown
Alfonso Rendano, pianist (d. 1931)
Maria Westberg, ballerina (d. 1893)
January 16 – Matteo Carcassi, guitarist and composer (b. 1792)
March 15 – Giovanni Ricordi, violinist (b. 1785)
October 3 – George Onslow, composer (b. 1784)
October 29 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, pianist, composer and music teacher (b. 1785)
October 30 – Pietro Raimondi, composer (b. 1786)
December 5
Johann Peter Heuschkel, oboist, organist and composer (b. 1773)
Jeanette Wässelius, operatic soprano
date unknown – James Hill, folk musician (b. c. 1811)
1853 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
