1845 in music

Events

• March 13 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
• April 21 – Albert Lortzing's opera Undine debuts in Magdeburg.
• June 4 – William Fry's opera Leonora debuts in Philadelphia.
• July – Pas de Quatre is premièred in London, bringing together four of the greatest ballerinas of the time: Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni.
• July 19 – The National Anthem of Uruguay is first performed with music composed by Francisco José Debali with the collaboration of Fernando Quijano.
• October 19 – Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser debuts at the Dresden Hoftheater.
• Composer Henry Hugo Pierson goes to live in Germany.
• The Hutchinson Family Singers tour England with Frederick Douglass.
• Theodore Thomas arrives in the United States. The conductor would eventually become the Father of American Symphonic culture.
• Austrian pianist Leopold von Meyer begins a tour of the United States.
• The saxhorn family of valved brass instruments is patented by Adolphe Sax in France.

Classical music

• Frédéric Chopin - Mazurkas, Op. 59
• Francesco Florimo – La Tarantella
• Hans Christian Lumbye – Champagne Galop, Op. 14
• Robert Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor
• Pedro Soler – Premier Air varié sur un thème original
• Václav Veit – Les adieux, Op. 26
• Giuseppe Verdi – Seste Romanze II
• Samuel Sebastian Wesley – Morning and Evening Service in E major

Opera

• W. H. Fry – Leonora
• Albert Lortzing – Undine
• Giovanni Pacini – Stella di Napoli, premiered December 11 in Naples
• Temistocle Solera – La Hermana de Palayo
• Giuseppe Verdi
• *Alzira
• *Giovanna d'Arco
• Richard Wagner – ''Tannhäuser''

Births

• January 17 – Erika Nissen, pianist
• February 25 – Eugène Goossens, père, conductor
• March 5 – Alphonse Hasselmans, harpist and composer
• March 7 – Edward Lloyd, concert tenor
• March 13 – Joséphine Daram, opera singer
• March 14 – August Bungert, opera composer
• May 12 – Gabriel Fauré, composer
• May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music writer
• June 13 – Effie Germon, actress and singer
• July 1 – Ika Peyron, composer
• July 6 – Ángela Peralta, operatic soprano
• August 10 – Abay Qunanbayuli, poet, composer and philosopher
• August 25 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the great patron of Richard Wagner
• November 6 – Beniamino Cesi, pianist
• November 8 – Madeline Schiller, pianist
• date unknown
• *Annie Jessy Curwen, writer of children's music books
• *Antonio Galassi, operatic baritone

Deaths

• January 19 – Carl Borromäus von Miltitz, composer
• March 29 – Victor Lhérie, librettist
• May 11 – Carl Filtsch, pianist and composer
• July 10 – Juan Paris, composer and priest
• July 15 – Joseph Augustine Wade, conductor and composer
• September 23 – Matija Ahacel, collector of folk songs
• October 7 – Isabella Colbran, soprano and first wife of Gioacchino Rossini
• October 16 – Martha Llwyd, hymn-writer
• October 26 – Carolina Oliphant Nairne, songwriter
• November 2 – Chrétien Urhan, violinist and organist
• December 2 – Simon Mayr, composer
• December 25 – Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, composer
• date unknown – Alexander Juhan, violinist, conductor and composer