Events

• Franz Liszt gives the first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Hector Berlioz.
• Jacques Offenbach becomes director of his own opera house, Les Bouffes-Parisiennes
• Richard Wagner conducts a series of concerts in London.

Popular music

• "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming" by Stephen Foster
• "Juanita" by Mrs. Norton.

Classical music

• Georges Bizet - Symphony in C major
• Franz Berwald - Piano Concerto in D
• Eduard Franck - String Quartet in F minor op. 49 ()
• Charles Gounod - Symphony No. 1 in D
• Franz Liszt - Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H
• Anton Rubinstein - Quintet for Piano and Winds op. 55 (probably from this year)
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Quintet for Piano and Strings op. 14

Opera

• George Frederick Bristow - Rip van Winkle
• Jacques-François-Fromental-Elie Halévy - L'inconsolable
• Giuseppe Verdi - Les Vêpres Siciliennes

Musical theatre

• Po-Ca-Hon-Tas (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 18 - Vera Timanova, Russian pianist
• May 9 - Julius Röntgen, composer (d. 1932)
• May 11 - Anatoly Lyadov, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1914)
• July 9 - Paul Zilcher, Dutch composer (died 1943)
• August 2 - Cornélie van Zanten, opera singer and teacher (d. 1946)
• August 27 - Domenico Salvatori, castrato singer (d. 1909)
• September 9 - Michele Esposito, pianist and composer (d. 1929)
• November 6 - Paul Kalisch, singer (d. 1946)

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)
• April 12 - Pedro Albéniz, pianist and composer (b. 1795)
• September 27 - August Lanner, conductor and composer (b. 1835)
• November 9 - Domenico Cosselli, operatic bass-baritone (b. 1801)
• date unknown - Olea Crøger, collector of Norwegian folk tunes (b. 1801)