100 Guitars
Prepare to be immersed in a wave of sound and community like no other.
Experience music like never before at 100 Guitars, a breathtaking sonic and social event coming to Brisbane Festival 2025. This isn’t just a concert — it’s a powerful, site-specific performance featuring 100 electric guitarists from communities across the city, uniting to create an unforgettable surround-sound spectacle. Founded by renowned Canadian composer and guitarist Tim Brady in 2015, 100 Guitars has wowed audiences at major festivals across Canada in unexpected venues like shopping malls, basilicas, railway stations, and hockey arenas. This special Brisbane Festival performance will feature Brisbane’s own Topology, infusing the experience with their signature rhythmic virtuosity on piano, saxophone, violin, viola, and double bass. Join us at a once-in-a-lifetime immersive sound experience that celebrates creativity, connection, and the electric power of community.
If you would like to get involved, please find more information about workshops and locations here.
Dates & Times
From 14 Sep
Duration: 21 minutes
Accessibility
- Assistive Listening
- Wheelchair Access
Credits
Image by Laurence Labat
The Topology and Instruments of Happiness 100 Guitars co-production was funded in part by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Topology is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation. 100 Guitars is funded and supported by the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety.
Supported By
This project is supported through the Giving Program by Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax AC, and by Carolyn Vincent - Ubuntu Foundation.
Artists
Topology
Brisbane / Meanjin
Established in 1997, Brisbane-based Topology are established leaders in musical creativity in Australia, prolific creators of new original work, expert collaborators across genres and art forms and award-winning music educators. With a well-established reputation for their signature work, the quintet experiments with surprising combinations of genres, theatrical staging and cross art form collaboration to create thought-provoking music experiences for audiences of all ages, backgrounds and tastes. Resident Artist at Brisbane Powerhouse for 18 years, Topology has an extensive discography, produced countless evening-length works, presented an award-winning concert series, and toured extensively nationally and internationally.
The founding members of Topology are John Babbage (composer, saxophone), Robert Davidson (composer, bass), Bernard Hoey (composer, viola), Christa Powell (violin) and Kylie Davidson (piano, ’97-’11), with Therese Milanovic (piano) formally joining the ensemble in 2009.
Topology are famous for the breadth and depth of their collaborations. Undaunted by stylistic barriers, the quintet has created stunning new work with partners in theatre (Geoffrey Rush, Neil Armfield, Queensland Theatre Company), classical music (the Brodsky Quartet, the Southern Cross Soloists), contemporary art music (Terry Riley, Speak Percussion), dance (Expressions Dance Company, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, Jody Oberfelder), puppetry (Dead Puppet Society), contemporary jazz (Trichotomy, Loops), popular songwriting (Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan), comedy (the Kransky Sisters, Gerry Connolly), Asian music (Dheeraj Shrestha, Ubiet) and indigenous Australian music (William Barton).