George Dreyfus
One of Australia's best-known composers, especially for the theme from the television series Rush, George Dreyfus was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at Victorian Parliament House for services to music.
George Dreyfus was born in Wuppertal, Germany in 1928 and migrated to Australia with his brother and parents in 1939. After formal education at Melbourne High School, he began his professional career as a bassoonist with the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre, playing opera, ballet and musical comedy.
In 1953 he joined the ABC's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, working under international conductors including Lorin Maazel, Josef Krips, Sir Malcolm Sargent, André Cluytens and Charles Mackerras. He left the MSO in 1965 to freelance as a composer, supporting himself with film scores and keeping a lively public profile through the ISCM (Melbourne), the George Dreyfus Chamber Orchestra, the GEKKO Opera Company and other groups with which he remains involved. Across those years he has written four operas, two symphonies, choral and chamber music, and many film scores.
His public standing changed in 1974 when the theme for the ABC series Rush became a best-seller. Later he found new outlets in community work: his Australian Folk Mass and his brass-band music have been performed widely across the country.
He has held fellowships at the Australian National University in Canberra (1967–68), the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome (1976), Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem (1980), and the conservatories of Tianjin (1983), Shanghai (1987) and Nanjing (1991). He received the Don Banks Fellowship (1991) and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (1992) for services to music, particularly as a composer. His music is published by Allans Publishing in Melbourne; his autobiography The Last Frivolous Book (1984) is published by Hale and Iremonger in Sydney.
George Dreyfus is featured on the following titles
Sebastian's Greatest Adventure
George Dreyfus’s score for the 1963 ABC children’s series Sebastian the Fox returns in a two-disc set: a CD of the soundtrack and a DVD of restored episodes with a newly recorded orchestral version.
George Dreyfus ... Live!
In 1978 George Dreyfus staged a live one-man show of his own music, with Paul Grabowsky at electric piano and synthesiser. The long-out-of-print LP has been remastered and reissued on CD.
Composer
Producer
The Film Music of George Dreyfus, Vol. 2
Move again draws on Screensound Australia's archive for the film music of George Dreyfus, with the first release of his unused score for Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies (1982).
Composer
The Marvellous World of George Dreyfus, Vol. 2
The second volume of marvellous music from one of Australia’s favourite composers, George Dreyfus. The programme ranges across folk ballads, choral suites, film and television themes, chamber works and solo showpieces, and gives a clear view of his many-sided craft.
Composer
The Film Music of George Dreyfus, Volume 1
Fourteen of George Dreyfus’s best-loved film and television themes, recorded with the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras under the composer’s direction.
Composer
Rush, The Adventures of Sebastian the Fox and Other Goodies
An enjoyable collection built around two of George Dreyfus’s best-known scores, the charting TV theme Rush and the suite from the ABC children’s series The Adventures of Sebastian the Fox.
Composer
Compositions by George Dreyfus also appear on
Move 50
Twenty-four Australian composers mark Move Records’ fiftieth year with short new works gathered on this commemorative disc.
The Brass Band Music of George Dreyfus
This release features Fanfare for a New Dome played by Melbourne's Kew Band. There is a great variety of music composed by George Dreyfus here — even a band version of his famous Theme from Rush.
Ambient Voice
Ambient Voice places Dean Frenkel’s haunting harmonic vocals over and within works by outstanding Australian composers, among them Mark Clement Pollard, George Dreyfus, Andrew MacGregor and Invention in Time.
Hornocopia
About 110 minutes of French horn music, from classical staples to contemporary scores. Much of the programme sits on the AMEB French Horn syllabus, and several works appear here on CD for the first time – a practical set for students and teachers.
The Marvellous World of George Dreyfus, Vol. 1
A survey of marvellous music by the well-known Australian composer George Dreyfus, one of the country’s most animated musical personalities, spanning concert, film, choral and children’s repertoire.
There is an Island
A tuneful, dramatic cantata by Don Kay on Tasmania’s early colonial history and the fate of the full-blood Tasmanian Aboriginal people, with Clive Sansom’s lyrics. Paired with George Dreyfus’s The Song of the Maypole.
Composer
George Dreyfus: Chamber and Orchestral Music
The Adelaide Wind Quintet and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra present the serious side of George Dreyfus: the Sextet for Didjeridu and Wind Instruments and his two symphonies, a core chamber and orchestral portrait of the composer.
Music for Strings
String orchestra music from Wolf-Ferrari and Grieg to Britten, Grainger and living Australian voices. Gerald Gentry leads the Southern Cross Philharmonia, with Amir Farid at the piano in Grainger’s clog-dance romp.
The Concert Band Music of George Dreyfus
Conducted by the composer, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble of the Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, performs George Dreyfus’ complete music for wind orchestra.
Composer
Cornet Caprice
Tom Paulin and pianist Len Vorster explore the cornet’s brilliance in a recital of virtuoso showpieces and contemporary writing by Bozza, Arban, McCabe, Dreyfus and others.
