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Dessoff was born in Leipzig and entered the conservatory there where he studied composition, piano and conducting with some of the foremost teachers of the day, including Ignaz Moscheles for piano and Moritz Hauptmann and Julius Rietz for composition. It was as a conductor that he primarily established his reputation. By age nineteen, he was theater director in Düsseldorf and a mere five years later was offered a guest position with the Vienna Court Opera. He left his conducting post in Vienna in 1875. In Vienna, he became professor at the Vienna Conservatory. He also befriended Johannes Brahms and later was to premiere several of that composer's orchestral works, including the Symphony No. 1 in 1876. Although he had composed some works during the 1850s and early 1860s, he gave up composing when his career as a conductor blossomed. He later made a name for himself as the director of the Frankfurt Opera House.
His close friendship with Brahms can be seen in an exchange of letters between the two in 1878 when Dessoff wished to dedicate what is probably his best known work, his String Quartet in F, Op. 7. Though it met with success in its premiere, Dessoff was still not sure it was worth publishing and sent the score to Brahms asking for his candid opinion and offering to dedicate to him. Brahms wrote back praising the work and said, "...you would do me a great honor by writing my name over the quartet title—if need be then, we'll take the blows together should the public find it not to their liking." Dessoff also composed a string quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 cellos, Op. 10, several Lieder (songs) and a choral book. He died in Frankfurt in 1892. His daughter, Margarete Dessoff, founded the Dessoff Choirs when she stayed on in New York City during a family visit there.
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