IMAGE: Melanie Munugurr is pictured on the left, raising her hands to the sky as she speaks into a microphone with her eyes closed. To the right, Netenala Mizrahi looks towards the centre of the image, where large text says “STORIES OF WATER AND EARTH”

Limitless is an electro-acoustic exploration of Newcastle venue ‘The Lock Up’ as a window into the experience of confinement and freedom. In this unique venue, whose walls still echo with the anger and despair of those once confined within them, experimental chamber orchestra Ekstasis Ensemble will present Peter Sculthorpe’s Threnody, as well as 3 new works composed especially for this performance.

Drawing inspiration from texts written by those who have lived in confinement, this collaboration between instrumentalists and electronic artists will explore not only the limits of these walls but the limitations created by the beliefs and definitions that restrict our own internal worlds.

Ekstasis Ensemble is a Newcastle-based collective of orchestral instrumentalists and composers dedicated to pushing the boundaries of contemporary classical music in Australia. Formed in 2023 by cellist Naomi Dart, Ekstasis Ensemble create and perform works that blur genres, disrupt expectations and deliver intimate, transformative experiences of contemporary orchestral music to audiences from all walks of life.