Del Tredici started his musical life as an aspiring pianist at the age of twelve, and has said that if he had not been a pianist, he would have become a florist. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied piano and played primarily Romantic works. At Berkeley, he attended the Aspen Music Festival and School. The pianist he was going to study with was "mean" to him, however, so Del Tredici tried his hand at composing music instead. He composed "Opus 1", his first composition, and was invited to perform it for Darius Milhaud. After Milhaud complimented him on the piece, Del Tredici went back to Berkeley to concentrate on composition rather than performance.