Eclectic singer-songwriter
Originally born in Germany and transplanted to the U.S. as a young teen, Antje Duvekot began to hone her observational skills through a lens of biculturalism when she picked up a guitar during that move. Some years later, the confessional folk of Dar Williams and Ani DiFranco gave her license to share her observations, no matter how personal, in her first emerging songs. She has never let go of that tenet of vulnerability. “Duvekot has gotten hotter faster than any local songwriter in recent memory. Her songs feel at once fresh-faced and firmly rooted, driven by the whispery sensuality of her voice. She believes in the redemptive power of the shared secret and is utterly unafraid to mine the darkest corners of her life for songs that turn fear into resilience and isolation into community” (The Boston Globe). “When I first heard Antje, I knew I was witnessing something very special. She creates an entire, detailed world in verse, and takes you there with beautiful and understated melody. Her songs are stunning paintings of color and shade and always generate the heat and light that real art should. In an unpoetic and ‘in-your-face’ world, she is lyrical and subtle,” praised Neil Dorfsman—producer of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.
Antje’s has released five studio albums, working with producers such as Seamus Egan of SOLAS, Richard Shindell and Scott Petito, featuring support from Anais Mitchell, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, Sean Mullins, Liz Longley, Mark Erelli and Kris Delmhorst, among others. “What a blessing to have worked with someone as talented as Antje. With a voice like hers, and songs as good as these, a producer just tries to get out of the way, to do no harm, and to let the artist speak for herself,” says Richard Shindell.
Antje has extensive touring experience. She is a compelling live performer and has been invited to play at top festivals, such as the Newport Folk Festival, Mountain Stage, Philadelphia and Kerrville Festivals, and others. Internationally, she’s headlined the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and the Tonder Festival in Denmark. She has won some of the top songwriting awards, including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition and the Best New Folk Award at Kerrville. In one of the nation’s top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act. She has appeared on various NPR programs and in 2007, Bank of America featured Antje’s song, “Merry Go Round,” in a national TV advertising campaign seen by millions, including a Super Bowl audience. In 2010, she played the TEDMED conference in San Diego (among the unveiling of Ozzie Osbourne’s genome). According to CNN: “…the tone of the conference turned from intellectual to deeply emotional when Antje Duvekot got up with her guitar and sang about her grandmother’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease. Twitter revealed that ‘I wasn’t the only one who was holding back tears.’ Duvekot’s song was all too relatable for those of us who have watched loved ones slip away. ‘And Anna tries to form a thought / But at the end she’s forgotten where she started from / There’s something she would like to say / But the words in her head seem to have got away,’ she sang.”
In addition to music, Antje also works as an animator (having created music videos for Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dar Williams, Eliza Gilkyson, Martyn Joseph, Eliot Bronson and Lori McKenna), and she leads a yearly fan volunteer trip to Guatemala. She also occasionally serves as music ambassador on humanitarian projects run by Let Yourself Trust, the non-profit organization of fellow singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph.
