Reijer Dorresteijn studied with Ben Zaal and Ad van Zon at the Utrecht Conservatoire and graduated in 1985. He followed additional lessons with Willem van der Vliet. He has been a member of Orkest de Volharding since 1983 and the Xenakis Ensemble since 2002.

Notwithstanding this he has also been involved in several productions with the Ives Ensemble, ASKO Ensemble, Schцnberg Ensemble (Netherlands), Ensemble musikFabrik (Cologne, Germany), Steamboat Switzerland and as a solo player on stages for contemporary music and festivals in Europe. As a baroque player on the natural trumpet he has played with Concerto Farinelli (Flensburg, Germany), Musica Ducis (Netherlands).

As a teacher, Reijer Dorresteijn has been attached to the Conservatoire in Enschede since 1985. He has given masterclasses at the conservatories and academies for music at Münster (Germany), Brno (Czech Republic), Riga (Latvia), Lodz and Wroclaw (Poland), St.Petersburg (Russia) and Jyväskylä (Finland). He is a lecturer in the technical, physical, psychological and philosophical aspects of playing brass instruments. He assists already accomplished professional trumpet players with specific playing problems.