Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons born to Alfred Dreyfus and Hilde Ransenberg. Growing up, his family had what he described as "pots of money, cars, Kindermädchen and holidays in Switzerland and Czechoslovakia". However, due to the Nazi persecution of Jews, the family was forced to move to Berlin in 1935 and then left Germany entirely. He and his brother arrived in Melbourne in July 1939 and began attending boarding school; his parents followed in December. At Melbourne High School, Dreyfus conducted the school choir and played clarinet in the school orchestra. He enrolled in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music as a bassoonist, and then in 1948 toured for a year playing Italian opera with the J. C. Williamson touring orchestra. Dreyfus subsequently played for several years in the house orchestra of His Majesty's Theatre, Perth. He joined the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1953, where he played until 1964. He was reputedly fired from the orchestra by Clive Douglas. A grant enabled him in 1955 to continue his studies at the Imperial Academy of Music in Vienna, where he was taught by Karl Öhlberger.
Composer
Dreyfus began composing in 1956 but did not concentrate on composition until the 1960s after he left the Orchestra. A UNESCO travel grant allowed him in 1966 to travel to Germany for studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the in Cologne. In 1972 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. He has composed numerous film and television scores, including for The Adventures of Sebastian the Fox, A Steam Train Passes, Rush, Dimboola and The Fringe Dwellers. It 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, Die Marx Sisters and The Takeover which had its European premiere in 1997 in Germany. Other operas are Garni Sands and Gilt-Edged Kid. He also composed the musical The Sentimental Bloke, an adaptation of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke with book and lyrics by Graeme Blundell. The Sentimental Bloke premiered at the Melbourne Theatre Company in December 1985. He also contributed music to Manning Clark's History of Australia – The Musical which premiered in 1988. 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! includes essays on his music and a complete catalogue of works. In 2011 he published Brush Off! about his struggles with Opera Australia to get his opera Gilt-Edged Kid performed. In 2019, at the age of 90, Dreyfus disrupted the opening night of Rigoletto at the State Theatre in Melbourne when he attempted to use a megaphone from the front row to protest against the company for not having performed his work. George is currently touring Melbourne with his quartet and performing his best works to the community with funding from The Pratt Foundation. He most recently performed at The Festival of Jewish Arts and Music, where at the age of 91 he is still performing the bassoon part in the arrangements he made for quartet.
Dreyfus was formerly married to the academic and writer Kay Dreyfus. He has two sons and a daughter, Federal Labor MP and former Australian Attorney-GeneralMark Dreyfus, Jonathan Dreyfus, who has followed in his father's footsteps as a composer and Michelle Ball, a social worker. A portrait of George Dreyfus by artist Brian Dunlop was entered in the 1995 Archibald Prize competition.
