Distinguished Lecture Series - Gene Berger & Kristi York Wooten Lecture

This is a free lecture but registration is required. Use the ticket link to register.

If you like these kinds of events, please consider supporting the Museum's programming by making a donation.

From the earliest days of one the Southeast’s most beloved music shops to the present time —where few brick-and-mortar establishments survive and thrive—the founder of Greenville’s Horizon Records shares details of his five-decade roller coaster ride as a fan, business owner and heart of the local scene.

Listen to stories and songs, view memorabilia from music legends and explore the industry quakes, concerts, players and recordings that changed Gene Berger’s life.

About Gene Berger
Moving to Greenville 55 years ago in 1970 as a rising 10th grader, Gene soon fell in with the Rock’n’Roll crowd at high school and thence shortly after talked his way into a record store job. Five years later, after a brief year of college, Gene was inspired to open Horizon Records at age 20 with a head full of music passion, a lot of record collecting experience and almost no business knowledge. Thus begins the journey. The saga winds through several locations, a long and enlightening run at promoting, producing concerts and festival events, including a collaborative tenure at the Peace Center for seven years. Eventually the search for music retailing survival brought Horizon Records to the corner of Stone Ave. and N. Main Str. in 2003 where things finally after four decades settled n as vinyl collecting became the rage, again.

About Kristi York Wooten

A Greenville native and Furman University grad, Kristi launched her career in 1992 in the syndication department at Turner Broadcasting in New York and later at the Museum of Modern Art. Her music journalism side-hustle began at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and expanded to alternative weeklies across the country. Based in Atlanta since 1998, she has produced award-winning print, nonprofit, and agency work while publishing high-profile stories for The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and others. Kristi served as president of the Atlanta Press Club from 2020-2022 and is currently the director of digital news at Georgia Public Broadcasting and a contributor to NPR.

Host or Publisher Sigal Music Museum