1853 in music

Events

 * March 5 – The American-German piano company Steinway & Sons is founded by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.
 * October – Louis Niedermeyer reorganizes and re-opens the school known as the École Choron, which becomes the École Niedermeyer.
 * October 1 – The piano manufacturer C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik is founded by Carl Bechstein in Berlin.
 * October 22 – The overture to Tannhäuser is performed in Boston Music Hall by the Germania Musical Society conducted by Carl Bergmann. It is the first American performance.
 * November 1 – Richard Wagner begins composing the music for The Ring of the Nibelung.
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk returns the United States after eleven years in Europe.
 * Brahms meets Joseph Joachim and Robert and Clara Schumann.
 * Julius Blüthner founds Blüthner (piano manufacturer) in Leipzig, Germany.

Published popular music

 * Danmarks gamle Folkeviser collected by Svend Grundtvig
 * "Farewell My Lilly Dear" by Stephen Foster
 * "My Cottage Home" w.m. Alice Hawthorne
 * "My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster
 * "P'tit quinquin" (in Picard) by Alexandre Desrousseaux
 * "The Yellow Rose of Texas"

Classical music

 * Franz Berwald
 * Piano Trio No. 4 in C major
 * Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor
 * Johannes Brahms – Piano Sonata No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 3
 * Ida Henriette da Fonseca
 * Der Abschied
 * Byrons Statue
 * Die Erwartung
 * Granen ved Lougen
 * Regnbuen
 * Wechsellied zum Tanze
 * Zum neuen Jahr
 * William Henry Fry – Santa Claus, Christmas Symphony
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk – The Banjo, Op. 15
 * Charles Gounod – Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach, later known as Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
 * Franz Liszt
 * Piano Sonata in B minor
 * Hungarian Rhapsodies 1–15
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Piano Quartet in E major
 * Symphony No. 1 in E♭ major
 * Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich – F-A-E Sonata
 * Henryk Wieniawski – Violin Concerto No. 1

Opera

 * Victor Massé – Les noces de Jeannette
 * Karel Miry – Anne Mie (opera in 1 act, premiered on October 9 in Antwerp)
 * Giuseppe Verdi
 * Il trovatore (premiered on January 19 at Teatro Apollo in Rome)
 * La traviata (premiered on March 6 at La Fenice in Venice)

Births

 * May 17 – Carolina Östberg, opera singer (d. 1929)
 * July 24 – Alessandro Parisotti, composer and music editor (d. 1913)
 * November 23 – Giuseppina Bozzachi, ballerina (d. 1870)
 * December 22 – Teresa Carreño, pianist, singer, conductor and composer (d. 1917)
 * December 30 – André Messager, composer (d. 1929)
 * date unknown
 * Alfonso Rendano, pianist (d. 1931)
 * Maria Westberg, ballerina (d. 1893)

Deaths

 * January 16 – Matteo Carcassi, guitarist and composer (b. 1792)
 * March 15 – Giovanni Ricordi, violinist (b. 1785)
 * October 3 – George Onslow, composer (b. 1784)
 * October 29 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, pianist, composer and music teacher (b. 1785)
 * October 30 – Pietro Raimondi, composer (b. 1786)
 * December 5
 * Johann Peter Heuschkel, oboist, organist and composer (b. 1773)
 * Jeanette Wässelius, operatic soprano
 * date unknown – James Hill, folk musician (b. c. 1811)