Reaching beyond the heartbreaking imagery of Strange Fruit, the ensemble will traverse musical genres and styles to touch a place of reconciliation and healing.

The Song Company will be performing this program at the Berry Uniting Church on Wednesday, October 12 at 7pm.

It was 1939 when Billie Holiday first sang Strange Fruit, a raw and emotional piece about the hanging of a black man.

She was afraid to sing it, even in the welcoming environment of New York’s Greenwich Village.

The program for the concert in Berry will reach beyond the heartbreaking imagery of Strange Fruit to touch a place of reconciliation and healing.

Artistic Director, Antony Pitts said, “Billie Holiday’s delivery of the song Strange Fruit is for me the starting point for a purely vocal journey through different kinds of music – gospel, jazz, early pop – with a common sense of troubled engagement with the human condition.

“This is music which speaks straight to the heart and draws out meaning from each word.”

Billie Holiday was a true artist of her day, her unique, soulful voice and her ability to boldly make music material her own making her a superstar of her time. Her poignant voice is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz voices of all time.

Tickets are $40 and are available at www.songcompany.com.au.