1853 in music

Events

March 5 – The American-German piano company Steinway & Sons is founded by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.
October – Louis Niedermeyer reorganizes and re-opens the choristers' school known as the École Choron, which becomes the École Niedermeyer de Paris.
October 1 – The piano manufacturer C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik is founded by Carl Bechstein in Berlin.
October 22 – The overture to Tannhäuser is performed in Boston Music Hall by the Germania Musical Society conducted by Carl Bergmann. It is the first American performance.
November 1 – Richard Wagner begins composing the music for The Ring of the Nibelung.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk returns to the United States after eleven years in Europe.
Brahms meets Joseph Joachim and Robert and Clara Schumann.
Julius Blüthner founds Blüthner in Leipzig, Germany.

Published popular music

Danmarks gamle Folkeviser collected by Svend Grundtvig

"Farewell My Lilly Dear" by Stephen Foster
"My Cottage Home" w.m. Alice Hawthorne
"My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster
"P'tit quinquin" by Alexandre Desrousseaux
"The [Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]"

Classical music

Franz Berwald
*Piano Trio No. 4 in C major
*Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor
Johannes Brahms – Piano Sonata No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 3
Ida Henriette da Fonseca
*Der Abschied
*Byrons Statue
*Die Erwartung
*Granen ved Lougen
*Regnbuen
*Wechsellied zum Tanze
*Zum neuen Jahr
William Henry Fry – Santa Claus, Christmas Symphony
Louis Moreau Gottschalk – The Banjo, Op. 15
Charles Gounod – Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach, later known as Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
Franz Liszt
*Piano Sonata in B minor
*Hungarian Rhapsodies 1–15
*Ballade No. 2
Camille Saint-Saëns
*Piano Quartet in E major
*Symphony No. 1 in E♭ major
Robert Schumann - Gesänge der Frühe
Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Albert Dietrich – F-A-E Sonata
Henryk Wieniawski – Violin Concerto No. 1

Opera

Births

May 17 – Carolina Östberg, opera singer
July 24 – Alessandro Parisotti, composer and music editor
November 23 – Giuseppina Bozzachi, ballerina
December 22 – Teresa Carreño, pianist, singer, conductor and composer
December 30 – André Messager, composer
date unknown
*Alfonso Rendano, pianist
*Maria Westberg, ballerina

Deaths

January 16 – Matteo Carcassi, guitarist and composer
March 15 – Giovanni Ricordi, violinist
October 3 – George Onslow, composer
October 29 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, pianist, composer and music teacher
October 30 – Pietro Raimondi, composer
December 5
*Johann Peter Heuschkel, oboist, organist and composer
*Jeanette Wässelius, operatic soprano
date unknown – James Hill, folk musician