1862 in music

Events

 * March 17 – Anton Rubinstein is named first director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, 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.
 * April 24 – A letter from Giuseppe Verdi is published in The Times of London complaining about the rejection of a work commissioned from him for the Great Exhibition.
 * 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.
 * August 4 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray wins the Prix de Rome in the Musical Composition category. Jules Massenet is one of the runners-up.
 * August 9 – The première of Hector Berlioz's opera Béatrice et Bénédict inaugurates the new Theater Baden-Baden.
 * November 2 – The Ride of the Valkyries and the overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner are publicly performed in Leipzig, conducted by the composer.
 * November 10 (November 22 N.S.) – Giuseppe Verdi's opera La forza del destino is first performed, in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russia.
 * November 18 – Antonín Dvořák is a member of the orchestra at the opening of the Provisional Theater in Prague.
 * date unknown
 * Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss II meet, at Baden-Baden.
 * Stephen Heller and Charles Hallé perform Mozart's E-flat concerto for two pianos at The Crystal Palace in London.
 * Ludwig von Köchel publishes Chonologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts (Catalogue of Mozart's Works or "The Köchel Catalog").

Published popular music

 * "Battle Cry of Freedom" – George Frederick Root
 * "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" – Julia Ward Howe, published in Atlantic Monthly (February 1).
 * "Here's Your Mule" – C. D. Benson
 * "Kingdom Coming" – Henry C. Work
 * "The Merry, Merry Month of May" – Stephen Foster
 * "We Are Coming, Father Abra'am, 300,000 More", a poem  by James S. Gibbons, set to music by eight different composers, including Stephen Foster.
 * Tyneside Songs – Thomas Allan (publisher)

Classical music

 * Alexander Borodin – Piano Quintet in C minor
 * Johannes Brahms - First two movements of the Cello Sonata No. 1
 * Emanuel Chabrier – Souvenirs de Brunehaut
 * Felix Draeseke – Fantasiestücke in Walzerform, opus 3: Nr. 1 in B; Nr. 2 in A-flat
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk
 * Union, Op. 48
 * Home Sweet Home, Op.51
 * Le Papillon
 * Asger Hamerik – Quintet
 * Ferdinand Laub – Concert-Polonaise, Op. 8
 * Karol Józef Lipiński – 2 Impromptus, Op.34 (published posthumously)
 * Franz Liszt – Phantasiestück über Motive aus 'Rienzi', S. 439
 * Henry Charles Litolff – Scherzo, Op. 115
 * Giacomo Meyerbeer – Fest-Ouvertüre im Marschstyl
 * Cesare Pugni – The Pharaoh's Daughter, ballet
 * Joachim Raff – Piano Quintet, Op. 107 in A minor
 * Napoleon Henri Reber – Piano Trio No. 4 'Sérénade', Op. 25
 * Camille Saint-Saëns – Mazurka No. 1 for piano in G minor, Op. 21
 * Henri Vieuxtemps – Violin Concerto No. 5, Op. 37
 * Giuseppe Verdi - Hymn of the Nations
 * Henri Wieniawski
 * Etudes-Caprices, Op. 18
 * Fantaisie orientale, Op. 24

Opera

 * Julius Benedict – The Lily of Killarney
 * Hector Berlioz – Béatrice et Bénédict
 * Frederic Clay – Court and Cottage (libretto by Tom Taylor)
 * Charles Gounod – La reine de Saba
 * Franz von Suppé – Die Kartenschlägerin
 * Giuseppe Verdi – La forza del destino

Births

 * 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)
 * April 5 – Louis Ganne, conductor (died 1923)
 * May 2 – Maurice Emmanuel, composer (d. 1938)
 * June 3 – Joseph Humfrey Anger, composer (died 1913)
 * June 27 – May Irwin, actress and singer (d. 1938)
 * August 10 – Ernest Richard Kroeger, composer (died 1934)
 * August 11 – Carrie Jacobs-Bond, US songwriter (d. 1946)
 * August 22 – Claude Debussy, composer (d. 1918)
 * August 29 – Maurice Maeterlinck, lyricist (died 1949)
 * September 25 – Léon Boëllmann, composer and organist (d. 1897)
 * October 10 – Arthur De Greef, composer and pianist (d. 1940)
 * October 15 – Conrad Ansorge, composer (died 1930)
 * November 1 – Johan Wagenaar, organist and composer (d. 1941)
 * December 9 – Karel Kovařovic, composer (died 1920)
 * December 18 – Moriz Rosenthal, pianist (d. 1946)
 * December 23 – Hans Wessely, composer (died 1926)
 * date unknown – Marcelle Lender, French singer-dancer and entertainer (d. 1926)

Deaths

 * 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)
 * April 7 – Sydney Nelson, composer and arranger (born 1800)
 * 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 2 – Marius Gueit, French organist, cellist and composer (b. 1808)
 * 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)