1862 in music

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Events

March 17 – Anton Rubinstein is named first director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opens in September. Tchaikovsky is in the first incoming class.
March 24 – Fromental Halévy's funeral, in Paris, is attended by an estimated 15,000 people.^[1]
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.^[1]
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.^[1]
August 4 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray wins the Prix de Rome in the Musical Composition category. Jules Massenet is one of the runners-up.^[1]
November 2 – The overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner is publicly performed in Leipzig, conducted by the composer.
November 18 – Antonín Dvořák is a member of the orchestra at the opening of the Provisional Theater in Prague.^[1]
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").

Johannes Brahms - First two movements of the Cello Sonata No. 1
Felix Draeseke – Fantasiestücke in Walzerform, opus 3: Nr. 1 in B; Nr. 2 in A-flat
Asger Hamerik – Quintet
Joachim Raff – Piano Quintet, Op. 107 in A minor
Alexander Borodin – Piano Quintet in C minor
Camille Saint-Saëns – Mazurka No. 1 for piano in G minor, Opus 21

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)
July 2 – Charles Mayer, pianist and composer (b. 1799)
August 31 – Ignaz Assmayer, composer (b. 1790)
November 1 – Eleonora Zrza, Danish opera soprano (b. 1797)
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)

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e MusicAndHistory.com: 1862 Archived 2012-08-28 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 8 March 2013
^ Silber, Irwin, Songs of the Civil War, p 92, Published by Courier Dover Publications, 1995 ISBN 978-0-486-28438-5. page , retrieved December 6, 2008