- Jan 5 Charles Garnier's new Opera opens in Paris
- Jan 24 Camille Saint-Saëns' orchestral tone poem "Danse Macabre" premieres
Carmen
Mar 3 Georges Bizet's last and greatest opera "Carmen" premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, France
- Mar 14 Bedřich Smetana's symphonic poem "Vysehrad" (The High Castle) premieres in Prague; it later becomes the first section of the "Má Vlast" collection
Piano Concerto No. 1
Oct 25 The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts with Hans von Bülow as soloist