# 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

* "Angels We Have Heard on High" – James Chadwick (paraphrase of traditional French lyrics) and Edward Shippen Barnes (arrangement of traditional French tune)
* "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" – poem by James S. Gibbons, set to music by eight different composers, including Stephen Foster.
* "Blaydon Races" – traditional folk tune, 1862 lyrics by George Ridley
* Christ Is Risen! Christ Is Risen! – Archer Thompson Gurney
* 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
** Berceuse
* 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 19 – Jef Denyn, carillon player (d. 1941)
* 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)