February 1 – "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe is published in Atlantic Monthly.
March 17 – Anton Rubinstein is named first director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opens in September.
March 24 – Fromental Halévy's funeral, in Paris, is attended by an estimated 15,000 people.
April 24 – A letter from Giuseppe Verdi is published in The Times, complaining about the rejection of a work commissioned from him for the Great Exhibition.
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.
August 4 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray wins the Prix de Rome in the Musical Composition category. Jules Massenet is one of the runners-up.
August 9 – Béatrice et Bénédict, opera by Hector Berlioz, is premièred in Baden-Baden.
November 2 - The overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner is publicly performed in Leipzig, conducted by the composer.
November 10 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera La forza del destino is premièred in Saint Petersburg.
November 18 – Antonín Dvořák is a member of the orchestra at the opening of the Provisional Theater in Prague.
date unknown
Stephen Heller and Charles Hallé perform Mozart's E-flat concerto for two pianos at The Crystal Palace.
Ludwig von Köchel publishes Chonologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts (Catalogue of Mozart's Works or "The Köchel Catalog").
"Here's Your Mule" – C. D. Benson
"Kingdom Coming" – Henry C. Work
"The Merry, Merry Month of May" – Stephen Foster
"We Are Coming, Father Abra'am, 300,000 More", a poem by James S. Gibbons, set to music by eight different composers, including Stephen Foster.
Felix Draeseke – Fantasiestücke in Walzerform, opus 3: Nr. 1 in B; Nr. 2 in A-flat
Asger Hamerik – Quintetto
Joachim Raff – Piano quintet opus 107 in A minor
Alexander Borodin - Piano Quintet in C minor
Camille Saint-Saëns - Mazurka No. 1 for piano in G minor Opus 21
Julius Benedict – The Lily of Killarney
Frederic Clay – Court and Cottage (libretto by Tom Taylor)
Charles Gounod – La reine de Saba
Franz von Suppé – Die Kartenschlägerin
Hector Berlioz – Béatrice et Bénédict
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 21 – Elmer Samuel Hosmer, composer (d. 1945)
May 2 – Maurice Emmanuel, composer (d. 1938)
June 27 – May Irwin, actress and singer (d. 1938)
August 11 – Carrie Jacobs-Bond, US songwriter (d. 1946)
August 22 – Claude Debussy, composer (d. 1918)
September 25 – Léon Boëllmann, composer and organist (d. 1897)
October 10 – Arthur De Greef, composer and pianist (d. 1940)
November 1 – Johan Wagenaar, organist and composer (d. 1941)
December 18 – Moriz Rosenthal, pianist (d. 1946)
date unknown – Marcelle Lender, French singer-dancer and entertainer (d. 1926)
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)
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)
August 31 – Ignaz Assmayer, composer (b. 1790)
December 24 – Joseph Funk, composer and music teacher (b. 1778)
date unknown
Joseph Fonclause, bow-maker (b. 1799)
Jon Eriksson Helland, Hardanger fiddle maker (b. 1790)
Luigi Piccioli, singer and music teacher (b. 1812)
Geltrude Righetti, operatic contralto (b. 1793)
1862 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
