Jim Chappell

Born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, in June of 1954, Wayne acquired his love for music at a early age. At the age of five, Wayne moved to Reading, Pennsylvania. Inspired by his kindergarten teacher, Wayne began playing the piano at age six and studied piano into his high school years. He then began studying guitar. With the onset of cool keyboard bands such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, and Genesis, Wayne decided to return to the keyboards.

In addition to his love for music, Wayne also did pretty well at swimming, competing at statewide high school meets. "Since you can't really make a living at swimming," Gratz says , "I decided to keep music as my main focus. " A resident of Reading, PA from the age of five through high school, Wayne played in various rock bands. After high school, he began touring the U.S and Canada, ending up in Orlando, Florida in 1976.

From 1989 to 2002, Wayne released 7 albums of original compositions on the Narada Label and 4 albums of cover music on the Enso label. Wayne also contributed to some of the most memorable compositions on Narada's best selling collections, The Wilderness Collection, A Childhood Remembered, Piano Solos, and 2 Christmas Collection albums. All these albums are still distributed by Capitol Records and EMI and are available at most digital download centers

Wayne started his own label Wayne Gratz Music in 2002 and has recorded and produced 5 albums,
to include Sleepy Baby Suite, Christmas Remembered, Soul to Soul, Light Lands and Shoreline and the most recent project, Two Views. In addition, his music has been used for the Olympic games specialty
segments, NBC television specials, and background music for numerous other television/radio advertisements, to include a Tiger Woods segment and background music for Thomas Kinkade’s new DVD. Wayne’s music is featured on Music Choice and can be heard on Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, WLOQ, and numerous radio stations around the world.