He began his musical training with his father, then with William Schultze from the Mendelssohn Quintette Club and eventually came back to Europe to study at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke, Ignaz Moscheles, and Ernst Richter.

From 1885 onwards, Perabo lived in Boston, where he led a career as a pianist, composer, and music teacher.

He gave private lessons: his most famous student, who studied with him from 1876 through 1882, was the pianist and composer Amy Beach.

[2] Besides original compositions for the piano (including one Scherzo; three Studies; Pensées; and Prelude, Romance und Toccatina), he wrote numerous transcriptions of and fantasies on operas and orchestral works.

[3] Perabo collected a number of manuscripts and first editions of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, which are now preserved in the British Library.