Sylvie Benson is a 22-year-old songwriter-performer from the redwoods of Northern California. Molded by the forest-based culture of her upbringing, she writes half her songs in the woods and the other half hunched over her carpet like a gargoyle. An award-winning musician and 2025 Music and English graduate of Dartmouth College, she sings and self-accompanies with guitar, dulcimer, and Andean charango. Postgrad, she’s using her multi-genre training to advocate for the Earth and hopefully help someone out there feel more connected to their root network. So put your ear to the ground! Sylvie’s been whispering into the dirt again, and some new music is soon to sprout…

Though significantly less orange than the Lorax, Sylvie sings for the trees. She wrote her first song, “Top of That Tree,” at nine years old, and has been lovingly advocating for the environment through music ever since. Lend her your ears as she embarks on her next journey: writing a Celtic-fusion album for a reforestation nonprofit in Ireland. From September-June 2026, concert proceeds will go towards helping Reforest Nation reach their goal of planting 10 million trees by 2030. Climate change worsens by the moment, and art has always been a part of the solution. As Sylvie writes in The Source EP, “you are one with the thing you’re killing.” What if we were one with the thing we’re healing, instead?