After the developers of Sibelius were laid off in a 2012 restructuring by their corporate owner, Avid, most of the team were re-hired by the competing company, Steinberg, to create a new scorewriter.

[5][6][7][8][9] The project was unveiled on 20 February 2013 by the Product Marketing Manager, Daniel Spreadbury, on the blog Making Notes,[10] and the software was first released on 19 October 2016.

[15][16][17] In August 2024, when the rival scoring software Finale was discontinued after 35 years, its company President Greg Dell’Era recommended switching to Dorico, calling it the “new future of the industry”.

[22] User feedback influences Dorico's feature design, and the development team actively use the forum and Facebook group.

[26] Another signature feature is its automated condensing, where it combines multiple players' parts onto a single staff, such as for a conductor's score.