1891 in music

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Events

February 23 - Fourteen-year-old cellist Pablo Casals gives a solo recital in Barcelona.^[1]
March 16 - A performance of the Budapest Opera is interrupted by a spontaneous demonstration in support of musical director Gustav Mahler, at the time in conflict with intendant Géza Zichy and already negotiating for a position elsewhere.
May 5 - The Music Hall in New York City (which becomes Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky guest-conducting his own work.
May 10 - Danish classical composer Carl Nielsen marries his compatriot, the sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen, in St Mark's English Church, Florence, Italy, the couple having first met on March 2 in Paris.
October 16 - The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural concert.
The Peabody Mason Concerts are inaugurated with a performance by Ferruccio Busoni.
The ensemble attached to the Glasgow Choral Union is formally recognised as the Scottish Orchestra, predecessor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.^[2]

Frederick Delius – Irmelin
Robert Fuchs – Die Teufelsglocke
Miguel Marqués – El monaguillo (libretto by Emilio Sánchez Pastor, premiered in Madrid)
Emile Pessard – Les folies amoureuses premiered on April 15 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, Paris

January 25 - Wellman Braud, jazz musician (died 1966)
February 5 - Dino Borgioli, operatic tenor (died 1960)
March 22 - Alexis Roland-Manuel, French composer and critic (died 1966)
March 28 - Leah Frances Russell, Australian opera singer (died 1983)
April 2 - Jack Buchanan, Scottish singer, actor, dancer and director (died 1957)
April 23 - Sergei Prokofiev, composer (died 1953)
May 16 - Richard Tauber, Austrian singer (died 1948)
May 30 - Ben Bernie, US bandleader (died 1943)
June 3 - Georges Guibourg, French singer, actor and writer (died 1970)
June 9 - Cole Porter, songwriter (died 1964)
June 10 - Al Dubin, Swiss-born American lyricist (died 1945)
June 21 - Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (died 1966)
July 14 - Fréhel, French singer and actress (died 1951)
July 16 - Blossom Seeley, US singer and vaudeville performer (died 1974)
August 2 - Arthur Bliss, composer (died 1975)
September 11 - Noël Gallon, French composer and music educator (died 1966)
September 14 - Czesław Marek, Polish composer, pianist, and piano teacher (died 1985)
September 26 - Charles Munch, Alsatian symphonic conductor and violinist (died 1968)
October 1 - Morfydd Llwyn Owen, Welsh singer and composer (died 1918)
October 29 - Fanny Brice, US actress, comedian and singer (died 1951)
November 27 - Giovanni Breviario, operatic tenor (died 1982)
date unknown
- Charles McCarron, composer and lyricist (died 1919)
- Margaret Morris, dancer and choreographer (died 1980)

January 5 - Emma Abbott, singer (born 1850)
January 8 - Fredrik Pacius, composer and conductor (born 1809)
January 17 - Johannes Verhulst, conductor and composer (born 1816)
January 16 - Léo Delibes, composer (born 1836)
January 21 - Calixa Lavallée, composer (born 1842)
May 23 - Ignace Leybach, pianist, organist and composer (born 1817)
June 14 - Count Nicolò Gabrielli, Italian opera composer (born 1814
July 3 - Stefano Golinelli, pianist and composer (born 1818)
July 21 - Franco Faccio, composer and conductor (born 1840)
August 5/6 - Henry Litolff, keyboard virtuoso and composer (born 1818)
October 27
- Charles Constantin, conductor (born 1835)
- Johann Dubez, Viennese violinist and composer (born 1828)
November 9 - Frederick Mathushek, piano maker (born 1814)
November 20 - Franz Hitz, Swiss pianist and composer (born 1828)
December 28 - Alfred Cellier, composer (born 1844)
date unknown
- Harvey B. Dodworth, bandmaster and conductor (born 1822)^[3]
- Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, operatic soprano (born c.1815)

^ Kirk, H. L. (1974). Pablo Casals: A Biography. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-007616-1.
^ Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
^ "Harvey B. Dodworth (1822-1891)". Picture History. Retrieved 25 March 2011.