The site saw a major redesign in May 2009 which implemented "new ticketing, media and retail partners, video tutorials, a new personalized homepage, Dilettante Radio, a discussion forum and Dilettante Guru, a site-wide search tool.
[3] Dilettante was founded in January 2008 by Juliana Farha, a Canadian journalist and businesswoman who believed that social media was the ideal tool to support classical music and musicians.
[5] The competition consisted of a preliminary period where applicants were judged on their compositions by a judging panel including Nico Muhly, Michael Christie[6] and Jennifer Higdon, a period with voting open to the public, and a final event held at Wilton's Music Hall, London.
The finalists were Canadian Aaron Gervais, Taiwanese Chiayu and American David T. Little, whose compositions were performed by the London Sinfonietta alongside works that inspired them, including pieces by "great modernist iconoclasts, Charles Ives and Gyorgy Ligeti... [and] Jonathan Harvey, a composer of lofty spiritual inclinations.
In 2009, Dilettante was shortlisted for 'Website of the Year' on The Good Web Guide, who said that the site "aims to break down the barriers to classical music by connecting organisations and musicians with audiences, listeners with recorded and live music, and members of the worldwide classical community with each other.".