Dirk Snellings showed an early intense interest in music and even at school enjoyed experience with a variety of historical wind and string instruments, including the recorder, crumhorn, pommer, viol and harpsichord. From this he developed his particular interest in the viola da gamba and baroque repertoire, with a parallel fascination with the making of these instruments. He completed his higher education at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, graduating in music, while also following courses in anthropology. Besides the viola da gamba, he discovered the new expressive methods of singing first as a bass in some well-known choirs, including Currende and Collegium Vocale among others, and later as a student of singing with Lucienne Van Deyck. A period of intense study at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp led to the award of the First Prize summa cum laude, and to the extension of his repertoire into contemporary compositions. As the artistic director of the Capilla Flamenca, and together with Dr Eugeen Schreurs (Alamire Foundation University of Leuven), he specialises in the music of the Flemish polyphonists, with a particular interest in Burgundian composers. In his attempts at structurally underpinning these ‘innovating’ insights into vocal performing practice and at making them known to the public, he is supported by Herman Baeten, the inspirer of Musica, the Flemish service centre for Music in Peer.

As a soloist Dirk Snellings can look back upon a busy concert career in Belgium as well as abroad in Japan, the United States, Poland, Hungary, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and elsewhere, with particular emphasis on baroque compositions and the music of J.S. Bach. Numerous recordings for radio and television, as well as LP and CD recordings, bear witness to this. Dirk Snellings also lectures as a singer and musicologist at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, in addition to his master courses, passing on his experience to a new generation of musicians.