January 28 - The Russian Symphony Orchestra formed by conductor Modest Altschuler gives its first concert at Cooper Union in New York City. The orchestra is an American with Russian name, not a Russian orchestra touring America.
February 1 - Enrico Caruso records the aria Vesti la giubba from Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliaci for the Victor Company. This event marks his first recording in America.
February 4 - Jules Massenet's ballet La Cigale is performed for the first time at the Opera-Comique in Paris
February 17 – Puccini's Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia to huge success.
February 28 - Symphony No.2 in B-flat Major Op.57, by Vincent d'Indy, is performed for the first time by the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris.
February 29 - Bela Bartok's Scherzo Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra, Op.2, premiers in Budapest.
March 2 - Emma Calve sings Carmen at the New York Metropolitan Opera. This is her farawell performance with this opera company.
March 5 - Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major receives its first performance in Paris, given by the Societe Nationale de Musique. The only quartet by the composer.
March 18 - Anatoly Liadov's symphonic poem Baba-Yaga premiers in Saint Petersburg.
March 21 - Tone poemSymphonia domestica, by Richard Strauss, receives its premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York City. Conducted by composer, this event also marks the composer's first visit to the Unisted States.
March 30 - The first opera of Frederick Delius, Koanga, premieres at the Stadttheater in Elberfeld, Germany.
April 25 - Jean Sibelius' Valse triste premieres in Helsinki, Finland, the composer conducting.
May 10 - Hugo Alfven's rhapsody for orchestra Midsommervaka premieres in Stockholm.
May 16 - The Diamond Jubilee of violinist Joseph Joachim's first appearance in England is celebrated at Queen's Hall, London.
May 17 - Maurice Ravel's Sheherezade and Albert Roussel's Resurrection are premiered on the same program at a concert of the Societe Nationale de Musique in Paris.
May 17 - Vincent d'Indy's Choral varie Op.55, a composition featuring the saxophone as solo instrument, premiers in Paris
May 28 - A revised three-act version of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly is performed in Brescia with enormous praise.
June 9 – The Queen's Hall Orchestra, under Sir Henry Wood, plays its first concert under its new name of the London Symphony Orchestra.
June 15 - The first transmission of wireless telegraphy featuring music and dialogue takes place in Salzburg with Otto Nussbaumer making the transmission.
June 27 - Raoul Laparra is awarded the first Grand Prix de Rome by the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris with his cantata Alyssa. Maurice Ravel was a contestants.
July 5 - Edward Elgar is knighted in Great Britain bz King Edward VII
July 15 – Soprano Agnes Nicholls marries conductor Hamilton Harty.[1]
July - The Act of Touch in All Its Diversity by pianist Tobias Matthay is published in London by Longmans, Green and Co.
September 7 - Sir Hubert Parry's choral work The Love that Casteth Out Fear premieres at the Gloucester Music Festival. This work, about the passion of Christ, has a text bz composer.
September 12 – Pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski gives a concert in Wellington, New Zealand.
October
Alban Berg begins his studies under Arnold Schoenberg.
The Gramophone Company records the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria (G.C. 03033) performed by Dame Nellie Melba with Jan Kubelík on violin.
October 16 - Pan Voyevoda, a four-act opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, receives its first performance in Saint Petersburg
October 18 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under the composer's baton; it is also first published this year.
November 4 - Franco Alfano's four-act opera Risurrezione based on Tolstoi novel receives its first performance in Turin
November 5 - Emil Oberhoffer conducts the first concert of the newly established Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Ferruccio Busoni gives the world premiere of his Piano Concerto at the Beethoven-Saal in Berlin.
Arthur Nikisch and the Berlin Philharmonic record Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C minor for the Gramophone Company. This is the first recording of a complete symphony.
November 13 - Caprice andalou by Camille Saint-Saëns, scored for violin and orchestra, receives its initial performance in Paris
November 16 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, in his first trip to America, conducts the first American performance of his The Song of Hiawatha.
November 20 - The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra gives its inaugural concert. Conducted by Henri Viotta.
November 29 - Ernst von Dohnanyi's 4 Rhapsodies for Piano, Op.11, are premiered in Vienna, the composer performing.
December 10 - Serge Rachmaninoff, Sergei Taneyev and Alexander Scriabin are among the winners of the first annual Glinka Award for best composition by Russian composers.
Theodore Thomas conducts his final concert of the Chicago Orchestra.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York City gives the first performance outside Bayreuth of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, despite copyright objections raised by Cosima and Siegried Wagner.
