Background
DREYFUS, George was born on July 22, 1928 in Wuppertal, Germany.
DREYFUS, George was born on July 22, 1928 in Wuppertal, Germany.
George studied at Melbourne High School then Melba Conservatorium Victoria as a bassoonist.
Garni Sands, The GiltEdged Kid (operas); Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Symphonie Coneertante 1977; Jingles. & More Jingles; Reflections in a Glasshouse; The Illusionist; The Grand Aurora Australis Now Show; Galgenlieder; Songs Comic & Curious; Music in the Air; From within Looking out; The Seasons; Ned Kelly Ballads; Quintet after the Notebook of J.-G. Noverre; Sextet for Didjeridu & Wind Instruments; Old Melbourne; several pieces for young people; Lifestyle 1988, Song of Brother Sun 1988 (choral pieces); Henry Lawson Au"ard 1972; Prix de Rome 1976; Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem 1980, The Sentimental Bloke (musical) 1985.The parents followed in October 1939. As a young boy in Melbourne he learnt piano and sang in the synagogue choir. He has two sons, Federal Labor Member of Parliament and former Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, and Jonathan Dreyfus, who has followed in his father"s footsteps as a composer.
From 1948 Dreyfus played bassoon in J. C. Williamson"s touring orchestra, accompanying opera and ballet companies before joining the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (then known as the Victorian SO) in 1953.
He was bassoonist there in 1953/1954 and from 1958 until 1964. A grant enabled him in 1955 to continue his studies at the Imperial Academy of Music in Vienna.
He began composing in 1956 but did not concentrate on composition until the 1960s after he left the Orchestra. A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization travel grant allowed him in 1966 to travel to Germany for studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne.
He has composed numerous film and television scores, including for The Adventures of Sebastian the Fox (1963), A Steam Train Passes (1974), Rush (1974), Dimboola (1979) and The Fringe Dwellers (1986).
lieutenant was the score for Rush which brought him wider recognition and saw him immortalised in the Trivial Pursuit board game. He composed the operas Rathenau (premiered 1993 at the Staatstheater Kassel), Die Marx Sisters (premiered 1996 at the Bielefeld Opera) and The Takeover (1970) which had its European premiere in 1997 in Germany. Other operas are Garni Sands (1966, premiered 1972) and Gilt-Edged Kid (1970).
In 1984, he published his autobiography The Last Frivolous Book, and in 1998 a book of essays.
His memoir Don"t Ever Let Them Get You! (Black Pepper, 2009) includes essays on his music and a complete catalogue of works. In 2011 he published Brush Office! about his struggles with Opera Australia to get his opera Gilt-Edged Kid performed.
Dreyfus" first composition, Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon, Operation