Dirk Powell is a musician whose emotional understanding of American tradition enables him to cross significant cultural and artistic boundaries. He has expanded on musical roots extending back more than nine generations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains to create a career encompassing live performance, recording, producing, and composing/arranging for film. His ability to unite traditional and historical forms with modern artistic sensibilities has led to work with many of today's greatest directors, including Anthony Minghella, Ang Lee, Victor Nuñez, Spike Lee, Steve James, and Edward Burns.

While considered one of the world's leading experts on traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles, Dirk has a foundation in the classical realm, having begun piano study at age 8 before switching to Baroque harpsichord at 10. In his early teens, Dirk formed a musical bond with his grandfather, James Clarence Hay of Ashland, Kentucky, and discovered a personal resonance with the music of his mountain heritage. By combining early formal training with this deep feeling for rural styles, Dirk has arrived at a position unique in the modern musical landscape. He is in high demand for his soulful film scores, well-grounded yet adventurous CD production, consultation as an authority within several distinct traditions, and expertise on a wide variety of instruments.

Most recently, Dirk has been working with Anthony Minghella and T Bone Burnett on the music for the upcoming Miramax film Cold Mountain. His score for the Steve James documentary Stevie, which won first place at the Amsterdam Film Festival and is in competition at Sundance, 2003, has received wide acclaim. Dirk composed music for and performed in Victor Nuñez’s film Coastlines, which premiered at Sundance, 2002, and was chosen as fiddle and banjo soloist for Mychael Danna’s score to Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil, for which he also recorded an end-credit version of What's Simple Is True with the well-known singer Jewel. The connection established on this film with top music supervisor/producer Alex Steyermark resulted in Dirk composing and performing the score for The Unfinished Civil War, an award-winning documentary produced and directed by Glenn Kirschbaum. Dirk also wrote and performed the score to the powerful Appalshop film, Stranger With a Camera, which won a Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival and has aired extensively on PBS.

Dirk's banjo playing can be heard in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and Edward Burns’ The Brothers McMullen. His fiddling was featured in Riverdance: The Show, for which he chose and arranged traditional American material. Dirk has also appeared in the BBC/RTE five part documentary series The Irish Empire as an expert on the music and culture of the Scots-Irish who immigrated to the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. The companion recording to Charles Frazier's National Book Award-winning novel Cold Mountain on which he collaborated with Tim O’Brien and John Herrmann received widespread critical acclaim as it brought the untamed spirit of Appalachian music to a new audience. Dirk has recently been collaborating on a fusion of Appalachian music and Hip Hop with Richmond producer/rapper Danja Mowf for the film From the Holler to the Hood, which looks at tension between guards and inmates in the new maximum security prisons in Appalachia.

Dirk has also delved deeply into the traditions of Southwest Louisiana, where he now makes his home with wife Christine Balfa. Their Cajun band Balfa Toujours, carrying on in the musical footsteps of Dirk's legendary father-in-law Dewey Balfa, continues to release critically acclaimed CDs and tour the world. Most recently on the home front, Dirk has begun collaboration with Creole musician Keith Frank to release a CD specifically challenging the legacy of racism that continues to haunt Louisiana.

In addition to these musical pursuits, Dirk has actively pursued a long-standing interest in writing. His work has been accepted for publication by national literary magazines such as The Oxford American. His liner notes have received a great deal of attention, most recently earning a nomination for "Best Liner Notes" from the International Bluegrass Music Association for the CD Letters From My Father. In a further strengthening of his relationship with film as an art form, Dirk recently completed his first screenplay, Lost Branch, which addresses the growing American obsession with internet genealogy as an attempted replacement for family ties dissolving under the pressures of modern life.

In short, Dirk Powell has a vibrant creative energy that crosses many boundaries while remaining grounded in the rural traditions of his heritage. His formal musical training, deep-running roots, and dedication to self-expression as a necessary part of life combine to make him one of the most unique artists in America today.