Events

February 17 – Franz Liszt gives the first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Hector Berlioz.
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.^[1]
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 saw 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.

Georges Bizet – Symphony in C
Franz Berwald – Piano Concerto in D
Eduard Franck – String Quartet in F minor op. 49 ([1])
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
- 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

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.

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)