RICHMOND — Music Gennett Records recorded here decades ago influences the music we hear today.
A new Wayne County Historical Museum exhibit celebrates the Gennett Records story and the company's impacts. "Gennett Records: The Birthplace of Recorded American Music" debuted with a gala dinner Saturday and a public opening Sunday.
It tells the story of the Gennett family from manufacturing Starr pianos to establishing a recording empire that spread the work of influential American musicians.
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Karen Shank-Chapman, the museum's executive director, was drawn as a child to the Whitewater Gorge ruins of the Starr piano and Gennett recording buildings. Her father, Steve Shank, who worked five decades for WKBV radio, told her the Gennett story.
When she became the museum's director in 2018, Shank-Chapman realized she had the platform to share Gennett's story. She said that story is “a very personal story for myself, but I see how much it’s touched so many others, as well.”