1845 in music

Events

 * March 13 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
 * April 21 – Albert Lortzing's opera Undine debuts in Magdeburg.
 * June 4 – William Fry's opera Leonora debuts in Philadelphia.
 * July – Pas de Quatre is premièred in London, bringing together four of the greatest ballerinas of the time: Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni.
 * July 19 – The National Anthem of Uruguay is first performed with music composed by Francisco José Debali with the collaboration of Fernando Quijano.
 * October 19 – Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser debuts at the Dresden Hoftheater.
 * Composer Henry Hugo Pierson goes to live in Germany.
 * The Hutchinson Family Singers tour England with Frederick Douglass.
 * Theodore Thomas arrives in the United States. The conductor would eventually become the Father of American Symphonic culture.
 * Austrian pianist Leopold von Meyer (1816–1883) begins a tour of the United States.
 * The saxhorn family of valved brass instruments is patented by Adolphe Sax in France.

Classical music

 * Francesco Florimo – La Tarantella
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Bamboula: A Fantasy for solo piano.
 * Hans Christian Lumbye – Champagne Galop, Op. 14
 * Robert Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor
 * Pedro Soler – Premier Air varié sur un thème original
 * Václav Veit – Les adieux, Op. 26
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Seste Romanze II
 * Samuel Sebastian Wesley – Morning and Evening Service in E major

Opera

 * W. H. Fry – Leonora
 * Albert Lortzing – Undine
 * Giovanni Pacini – Stella di Napoli, premiered December 11 in Naples
 * Temistocle Solera – La Hermana de Palayo
 * Giuseppe Verdi
 * Alzira
 * Giovanna d'Arco
 * Richard Wagner – Tannhäuser

Births

 * January 17 – Erika Nissen, pianist (died 1903)
 * February 25 – Eugène Goossens, père, conductor (d. 1906)
 * March 5 – Alphonse Hasselmans, harpist and composer (d. 1912)
 * March 7 – Edward Lloyd, concert tenor (d. 1927)
 * March 13 – Joséphine Daram, opera singer (died 1926)
 * March 14 – August Bungert, opera composer (d. 1915)
 * May 12 – Gabriel Fauré, composer (d. 1924)
 * May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music writer (died 1889)
 * June 13 – Effie Germon, actress and singer (d. 1914)
 * July 1 – Ika Peyron, composer (d. 1922)
 * July 6 – Ángela Peralta, operatic soprano (d. 1883)
 * August 10 – Abay Qunanbayuli, poet, composer and philosopher (d. 1904)
 * August 25 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the great patron of Richard Wagner
 * November 6 – Beniamino Cesi, pianist (d. 1907)
 * November 8 – Madeline Schiller, pianist (d. 1911)
 * date unknown
 * Annie Jessy Curwen, writer of children's music books (died 1932)
 * Antonio Galassi, operatic baritone (d. 1904)

Deaths

 * January 19 – Carl Borromäus von Miltitz, composer (born 1781)
 * March 29 – Victor Lhérie, librettist (born 1808)
 * May 11 – Carl Filtsch, pianist and composer (b. 1830)
 * July 10 – Juan Paris, composer and priest (born 1805)
 * July 15 – Joseph Augustine Wade, conductor and composer (b. 1796)
 * September 23 – Matija Ahacel, collector of folk songs (b. 1779)
 * October 7 – Isabella Colbran, soprano and first wife of Gioacchino Rossini (b. 1785)
 * October 16 – Martha Llwyd, hymn-writer (b. 1766)
 * October 26 – Carolina Oliphant Nairne, songwriter (born 1766)
 * November 2 – Chrétien Urhan, violinist and organist (b. 1790)
 * December 2 – Simon Mayr, composer (b. 1763)
 * December 25 – Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, composer (b. 1759)
 * date unknown – Alexander Juhan, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1765)