Jan 2 Sandor Erkel, Hungarian composer and son of Ferenc Erkel, born in Pest (d. 1900)
Jan 8 Albert Cahen, French opera composer, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1903)
Jan 8 William Wallace Gilchrist, American composer, born in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 1916)
Feb 24 Luigi Denza, Italian composer (Funiculì, Funiculà), born in Castellammare di Stabia (d. 1922)
Feb 27 Joaquin Valverde Durán Spanish composer, born in Badajoz, Spain (d. 1910)
May 2 Zygmunt Noskowski, Polish composer, conductor, and pedagogue, born in Warsaw, Russian Poland (d. 1909)
May 5 Federico Chueca, Spanish composer, born in Madrid, Spain (d. 1908)
May 8 Oscar Hammerstein, German-American cigar maker, opera and theater impresario, composer, and playwright, born in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1919)
May 9 Nicolai Soloviev, Russian music critic and composer, born in Petrozavodsk, Russia (d. 1916)
May 26 Arthur Coquard, French composer, and music critic (Le Monde; L'Echo de Paris), born in Paris, France (d. 1910)
Jun 4 Josef Sittard, German musicologist and music critic, born in Vital, Aachen, Germany (d. 1903)
Jun 7 Władysław Górski, Polish violinist, composer and teacher, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1915)
Jun 30 Ricardo Drigo, Italian composer, born in Padua, Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom (d. 1930)
Jul 3 Achilles Alferaki, Russian composer, born in Kharkov, Russian Empire (d. 1919)
Aug 4 Silas Gamaliel Pratt, American composer (The Tragedy of the Deep), born in Addison, Vermont (d. 1916)
Sep 20 Agnes Tyrrell, Czech pianist and composer, born in Brno, Moravia (d. 1883)
Oct 23 Alexander Arkhangelsky, Russian composer, born in Penza, Russian Empire (d. 1924)
Nov 2 Antonio Peña y Goñi, Spanish composer, born in San Sebastián, Spain (d. 1896)
Nov 4 Gaston Serpette, French composer, born in Nantes, France (d. 1904)
Nov 7 Ignaz Brull, Moravain-born composer, born in Prostějov, Moravia (d. 1907)
Nov 10 Martin Wegelius, Finnish musicologist and composer, born in Helsinki, Finland (d. 1906)
Nov 10 Paul Kuczynski, Polish composer, born in Szczecin, Poland (d. 1897)
Dec 6 Henryk Jarecki, Polish composer, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1918)
Dec 22 Andreas Hallén, Swedish composer, born in Gothenburg, Sweden (d. 1925)
Dec 31 Richard Kleinmichel, German pianist, composer (Manon), and arranger (Wagner operas for piano), born in Posen, Prussian Grand Duchy of Posen (now Poznań, Poland) (d. 1901)