This article is about music-related events in 1875.

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• January 5 – Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera, designed by Charles Garnier, opens.
• March 3 – Georges Bizet's opera Carmen debuts, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
• May – The score for the ballet Swan Lake is commissioned from Tchaikovsky (premiered in 1877).
• May 6 – Richard Wagner conducts portions of Götterdämmerung in concert in Vienna (the complete opera is premiered in 1876).
• August 23 – Composer Zdeněk Fibich marries operatic contralto Betty Hanušová, sister of his first wife Růžena Hanušová.
• October 25 – The first performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is given in Boston, Massachusetts, with Hans von Bülow as soloist.
• Robert Volkmann becomes professor of harmony and counterpoint at the National Academy of Music in Budapest, under Franz Liszt.

• "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" w. Fanny Crosby m. Robert Lowry
• "Angels, Meet Me At the Cross Road"     w.m. Will Hays
• "Carve Dat Possum" by Sam Lucas & Herbert Hershy
• "Draw Me Nearer" w. Fanny Crosby m. William H. Doane
• "Dreaming Forever of Thee"      w.m. John Hill Hewitt
• "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"     w.m. Thomas P. Westendorf
• "Myfanwy" w.m. Joseph Parry
• "Nancy Lee" w. Frederic Edward Weatherly, m. Stephen Adams (pseudonym of Michael Maybrick)
• "The Spelling Bee" w.m. Septimus Winner
• "Take me back to home and mother," w. by Arthur W. French, m. by William A. Huntley^[1][2]
• "To God Be the Glory" w. Fanny Crosby m. William H. Doane
• "A Warrior Bold" w. Edwin Thomas m. Stephen Adams (pseudonym of Michael Maybrick)
• "The Witches Flight (Galop Caprice)" by Henry M. Russell

• Johannes Brahms
  • Fifteen Liebeslieder for piano duet
  • String Quartet No. 3
• Antonín Dvořák
  • Moravian duets (for voices and piano)
  • Piano Quartet No. 1
  • Piano Trio No. 1
  • Serenade for Strings
  • String Quintet (with double bass) (orig Op. 18)
  • Symphony No. 5
• Gabriel Fauré
  • Allegro Symphonique (for orchestra)
  • Suite for Orchestra
  • Les Djinns (for chorus and orchestra)
• Edvard Grieg – incidental music to Ibsen's Peer Gynt
• Édouard Lalo – Allegro Symphonique
• Alexandre Luigini – Ballet égyptien
• Jules Massenet – oratorio Eve
• Modest Mussorgsky – Pesni i plyaski smerti (Songs and Dances of Death), song cycle for bass voice and piano
• Amilcare Ponchielli – cantata A Gaetano Donizetti
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – String Quartet No. 1
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Piano Quartet, Op. 41
  • Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 44
  • tone poem for orchestra Danse Macabre Op. 40
• Bedřich Smetana – Má vlast (My Country) – Six symphonic poems
• Tchaikovsky
  • Symphony No. 3
  • Swan Lake (ballet, composition begun)

• Carmen first performed in Paris. Music by Georges Bizet and libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
• Die Königin von Saba, music by Karl Goldmark and libretto by Salomon Mosenthal (at the Hofoper (now the State Opera) in Vienna, on 10 March 1875)
• Angelo, music by César Cui

• Gilbert & Sullivan – Trial By Jury
  • London production opens at the Royalty Theatre on March 25
  • Philadelphia production opens at the Arch Street Theatre on October 22
• The Zoo, Lyrics and Book: Bolton Rowe Music: Arthur Sullivan, London production opened at St. James Theatre on June 5

• February 2 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1962)
• February 8 – Georgette Leblanc, operatic soprano (d. 1941)
• February 26 – Richard Wetz, German composer
• February 28 – Viliam Figuš-Bystrý, Slovak composer
• March 7 – Maurice Ravel, French composer
• April 4 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)
• April 5 – Mistinguett, actress and singer (d. 1956)
• May – Paul Sarebresole, ragtime composer (d. 1911)
• July 17 – Donald Tovey, composer and musicologist (d. 1940)
• August 9 – Albert Ketèlbey, composer (d. 1959)
• August 18 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer (d. 1912)

• January 18 – Joseph Philbrick Webster, composer (b. 1819)
• January 25 – Leopold Jansa, violinist, composer and music teacher (b. 1795)
• February 1 – William Sterndale Bennett, composer (b. 1816)
• February 23 – Louise Michaëli, opera singer (b. 1830)
• March 3 – Adolf Reubke, organ builder (b. 1805)
• March 15 – Christian Julius Hansen, composer (b. 1814)
• March 17 – Ferdinand Laub, violinist (b. 1832)
• March 19 – Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, violin maker (b. 1798)
• May 2 – Matthias Durst, violinist and composer (b. 1815)
• June 3 – Georges Bizet, composer (b. 1838) (heart attack)
• September 15 – Louise Farrenc, pianist and composer (b. 1804)
• September 24 – William Walker, songwriter (b. 1809)