- Jan 3 Sergei Rachmaninoff's final composition "Symphonic Dances" premieres in Philadelphia, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
Music History
Jan 20 Béla Bartók's 6th string quartet, premieres in NYC
Music History
Feb 7 Frank Sinatra & Tommy Dorsey orchestra record "Everything Happens to Me"
Music Recording
Feb 15 Duke Ellington first records "Take the A Train"
Music History
Feb 15 Greek-American singer Maria Callas makes her professional opera debut as Beatrice, in Franz von Suppé's "Boccaccio" at the Olympia Theatre in Athens, Greece
- Feb 22 Paul Creston's 1st Symphony premieres
Academy Awards
Feb 27 13th Academy Awards: "Rebecca", James Stewart & Ginger Rogers win
- Mar 14 Xavier Cugat & orchestra record "Babalu"
Music History
Mar 16 Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich receives the Stalin Prize
- Mar 19 Jimmy Dorsey & orchestra record "Green Eyes" & "Maria Elena"
Sports History
Mar 24 Glenn Miller begins work on his 1st movie "Sun Valley Serenade", starring Sonja Henie and John Payne, for 20th Century Fox
Music Premiere
Mar 29 1st performance of Benjamin Britten's "Requiem Symphony"
- Mar 29 WPAT radio in NJ begins broadcasting (country music format)
- May 7 Glenn Miller records "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for RCA, it becomes 1st record to be designated "gold"
- May 13 Willy Lewis' US jazz band performs in Switzerland
- May 15 Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid Jewish music
- May 16 1st US radio performance of Robert Russell Bennett''s "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
- May 21 Singer Johan Heesters visits Dachau concentration camp
Music History
Jul 2 Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" premieres in London
Music History
Jul 19 BBC World Service begins playing V(ictory) ("...-" in Morse code) (opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th symphony)
- Oct 1 Dmitri Shostakovich evacuated by plane to Moscow
- Oct 1 H Martin/R Blane's musical "Best Foot Forward" premieres in NYC
Music Premiere
Oct 29 Cole Porter's musical "Let's Face It" opens at the Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs 547 performances
- Nov 17 Virgil Thomson's 2nd Symphony, premieres
- Dec 21 David Diamond's 1st Symphony premieres
- Dec 27 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 7th Symphony in Siberia