# 1844 in music
## Events

* May 27 – Joseph Joachim plays the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto with Mendelssohn conducting the London Philharmonic. Later this year he meets Robert and Clara Schumann.
* October 15 – Johann Strauss Jr. makes his performance debut at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing.
* November 25 – Seth Gingras music by Michael William Balfe and libretto by Alfred Bunn has its American premiere at the Park Theatre, New York City.
* Thomas Tellefsen becomes a pupil of Frédéric Chopin.
* Jacques Offenbach converts to Catholicism and marries Herminie d'Alcain.

## Popular music

* "Buffalo Gals" w. The Ethiopian Serenaders (published 1848), m. John Hodges originally entitled "Lubly Fan"
* "The Blue Juniata" Marion Dix Sullivan (w. & m.)
* "Open Thy Lattice, Love" w. George Pope Morris, m. Stephen Collins Foster
* "Skip To My Lou" Trad. US

## Classical music

* Charles Valentin-Alkan – Gigue et air de ballet, Op.24
* Hector Berlioz – Roman Carnival Overture
* César Franck – Eglogue, Op.3
* Adolf Gutmann – 2 Nocturnes, Op.8
* Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 2 in B minor, Op. 22
* Felix Mendelssohn
** Spring Song m.
** A Midsummer Night's Dream incidental music (including the Wedding March)
** Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
* Léon de Saint-Lubin – 2 Salonstücke, Op.47
* Louis Spohr – 6 Duettini, Op.127
* Johann Strauss Jr.
** Sinngedichte
** Gunstwerber
** Herzenslust
* Joseph W. Turner – When I Left Thy Shores o Naxos
* William Vincent Wallace – La gondola, Op.18

## Opera

* Georges Bousquet – L'Hôtesse de Lyon
* Friedrich Flotow – Alessandro Stradella
* Saverio Mercadante – Leonora, premiered December 5 in Naples
* Giuseppe Verdi
** I due Foscari
** Ernani

## Births

* January 14 – Clara Kathleen Rogers, American singer and composer (d. 1931)
* January 29 – Charles G. Conn, instrument manufacturer (d. 1931)
* February 21 – Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
* March 10 – Pablo de Sarasate, violinist and composer (d. 1908)
* March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer (died 1908)
* March 19 – Auguste Kolár, pianist (died 1878)
* April 9 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
* April 30 – Richard Hofmann, composer (died 1918)
* May 8 – Hermann Graedener, conductor and composer (d. 1929)
* May 21 – Amy Fay, pianist (died 1928)
* June 3 – Émile Paladilhe, composer (d. 1926)
* August 24 – Gustav Hinke, oboist (died 1893)
* September 11 - Carl Bohm, pianist and composer (d. 1920)
* September 22 – William Stevenson Hoyte, composer (died 1927)
* December 5 – Sir Frederick Bridge, organist and composer (d. 1924)
* Date unknown – Olga Sandberg, Swedish ballerina

## Deaths

* January 15 – Joseph Mazzinghi, composer (b. 1765)
* January 30 – John Addison, double-bass player and composer (b. 1765)
* April 6 – Francis Johnson, black composer and band-leader
* May 21 – Giuseppe Baini, church composer and music critic (b. 1775)
* July 11 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, lyricist (born 1800)
* July 13 – Johann Baptist Gänsbacher, composer (b. 1778)
* July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, pianist and composer, son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* September 4 – Oliver Holden, composer and hymn-writer (b. 1765)
* November 9 – Uri Keeler Hill, composer (b. 1780)
* December 9 – Franz Seraph von Destouches, composer