Dittrich was born in Biala, Galicia (modern Bielsko-Biała, Poland). He attended the Vienna Conservatory, where he specialized in violin, piano, organ, and music composition. His teachers included Anton Bruckner, who later became one of his sponsors.
Dittrich was hired by the Meiji government of Japan as a foreign advisor on a three-year contract and arrived in Tokyo in 1888 as the first Art Director of the Tokyo School of Music (now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music). Dittrich and his wife both worked at the school, and also gave performances at the Rokumeikan. Dittrich was fluent in English, and also taught his students English conversation along with violin, piano, organ, theory, and composition. However, he was known as a very severe teacher, and at one point his students marched out on strike against him. However, many of his students went on to distinguished careers.
