Hilary Geddes

Hilary Geddes is an award-winning guitarist, improviser and composer based in Eora/Sydney on Gadigal Land. She is the 2021 Freedman Jazz Fellow, a 2021 ABC Jazz Scholarship, and the 2019 recipient of the Jann Rutherford Memorial Award. Hilary is the bandleader of the Hilary Geddes Quartet, and released her acclaimed debut album 'Parkside' (ABC Jazz) with the band in 2021. 'Parkside' was subsequently nominated for an AIR award for Best Jazz Album, and was also ABC Jazz Feature Album of the Week. In 2025, she launched her latest single 'First' (Earshift Music) at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, and in 2026 her sophomore album with Hilary Geddes Quartet debuted at #4 on the ARIA Jazz and Blues charts, and #20 on the ARIA Australian Album charts. 

​Hilary works as an in-demand guitarist in the Australian jazz and improvised music scenes, performing alongside jazz luminaries such as Mike Nock, Lakecia Benjamin (USA) and Jonathan Zwartz. She is a member of Jeremy Rose's Earshift Orchestra for the project 'Disruption! The Voice of Drums', which won an APRA Art Music Award in 2022. The project also performed at London Jazz Festival and JAZZTOPAD (PL) in 2025. Hilary also plays guitar in Ellen Kirkwood's group Underwards, Ben Lerner's trio SHEKET alongside drummer Laurence Pike, as well as the trio Sweet Tooth with Chloe Yeajee Kim and Jonathan Zwartz. In 2023, she completed a successful tour of Germany with the Geddes/Haupt Quartet alongside bassist, Michael Haupt, and in 2025 she toured India with The Three Seas.

As a sound composer, Hilary was awarded the Tura Adapts: 2020 No Borders Commission for the multi-media work 'Upstream, Down River', which premiered at the Old 505 Theatre, and was subsequently programmed at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Hilary was also a recipient of the Woollahra Municipal Council’s 2018/2019 Community and Cultural Grants Program, through which she was able to launch her soundmapping project SCAPES with a series of pop-up improvisations throughout the Woollahra precinct in March. These performances were recorded and will be released in the coming months.

Hilary also works in rock and contemporary music scenes, having performed with Tim Minchin in his album livestream in 2020. She is the lead guitarist and co-composer in the rock band, The Buoys (Arcadia Records/SONY), whose song 'Lie to Me Again' was voted number 85 in the 2021 triple j Hottest 100. They have performed at the Opera House as part of VIVID Festival, Splendour in the Grass, have supported bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Wolfmother, Hoodoo Gurus and the Dandy Warhols, and supported Vacations on the UK leg of their tour. The Buoys' 2024 debut album, LUSTRE landed at number 7 on the ARIA Australian Album charts, and number 6 on the ARIA Vinyl Charts, and was nominated for album of the year at the 2024 J AWARDS. In 2025, the band completed two tours of the UK/Europe, selling out shows in Paris, London and Glasgow, and performing at showcases at Reeperbahn in Germany.

​In 2018, Hilary graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with First Class Honours, studying under renowned guitarists Carl Dewhurst, James Muller and Steve Brien. She also spent a year living in Germany, studying with esteemed guitarist, Andreas Wahl at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen during 2016 and 2017. After a competitive selective process, Hilary took part in the Australian Art Orchestra Creative Music Intensive in 2018, working and performing with artists such as Il Dong Bae, Daniel and David Wilfred and Sunny Kim. In 2025, she was also a finalist in the APRA AMCOS Professional Development Awards. 

Hilary has an ever-evolving creative practice that centres shared learning, collaboration and exploring different processes for improvisation. Over the past three years, her practice has centred around the possibilities of site-specific improvisation, soundmapping, and guitaristic approaches to composition. On these aspects of her practice, Hilary received guidance from Vanessa Tomlinson, Cat Hope and Andrea Keller as part of the Australian Art Orchestra’s and Sydney Improvised Music Association’s 2020 mentorship programmes.