Residency
2025
Synth Library NYC is excited to welcome Austin Johnson, Rachel Jihye Han and Delaney Benstead to our inaugural Artist-In-Residence program!
Residents will work as a collective to improve the library, plus they will steward an individual project of their choosing with the support of our infrastructure and membership!
Our three residents were selected through a community review process from a pool of outstanding applicants, each showcasing a diverse range of talent and innovative ideas. Applications for the 2026 residence will be expected to open in Fall 2025, keep an eye on the emails.
Here’s more about our 2025 Residents and what they will be doing this year:
Delaney Benstead (he/they) is a Brooklyn-based audio engineer and lifelong musician who is deeply passionate about learning and currently focused on expanding their knowledge of engineering through building synthesizers as well as coding audio plugins Before moving to Brooklyn 2 years ago, Delaney worked as an audio engineer in Boston, MA at Infinite Recording Studios. Delaney apprenticed under Steve Catizone and also worked as a student coordinator for a 6 month audio engineering course. He created training manuals and protocols for using the studio and taught students key audio engineering concepts. Delaney’s residency project will focus on developing member-led guides and training modules for synth-beginners.
Rachel Jihye Han (she/her) is a composer, classically trained violinist, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and poet living in Brooklyn. She received an MFA in Poetry with a Jazz Studies Concentration from Rutgers University-Newark where she currently teaches English and Poetry, and has taught workshops for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and New Jersey Performing Arts Center. A 2023 MacDowell Fellow, 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, and 2022 Hawthornden Castle Fellow, she performs and releases music under the name Hiera Jihye. Her first poetry collection, I AM RETURNING FOR THE BODY, won the Gatewood Prize and is forthcoming with Switchback Books. For her residency project, she will launch a series of interdisciplinary production workshops and collaborative sound sessions focused on underrepresented artists, culminating in an album of synth library members’ works.
Austin Johnson (he/they) is a singer originally from the Chicago area based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He received a B.A. in Art History and African-American Studies from Yale University. He currently works at YouTube Music as a Manager of Operations, which has given him intimate insight into racial and gender inequities that persist in the technical fields of music. Austin’s residency project will focus on improving the library’s inventory and diversifying avenues of participation in our mission.
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