A gifted artist and musician, Tom Katz has an equal passion for both of these talents.
He was born near England’s North East coast in 1951 and lived in Sunderland until moving to London at the age of 21. He started painting when he was young and after a full and varied career in music, returned to painting about eight years ago.
Tom’s ability to both play music and paint nearly came to a sudden end 10 years ago in a high-speed accident on a motorway. A van forced him off the road and he badly injured his right shoulder – he is right-handed.
He had to undergo a lengthy operation to fit a titanium pin to his shoulder and doctors told him he would never be able to paint or play guitar again.
Yet Tom proved the doctors wrong, and after a tough year of physiotherapy he went on to play lead guitar with the rock band Hello. He also took up his paintbrushes again, and now his breathtaking paintings are sold to leading art collectors worldwide.
Tom is also a singer-songwriter, while his daughter, 20-year-old Aimie Atkinson, won BBC Radio 2’s ‘Voice of Musical Theatre’. She is now starring in the new musical Zorro, which is on tour and heading for London’s West End.
