There’s an old joke in New York about the only way to get to Carnegie Hall: “Practice, practice, practice.” But Poway teenager Alexander Pruetting’s unexpected journey to the legendary concert hall has been filled with unexpected twists and turns.

At the age of 2, Alexander was diagnosed with autism, which has sharply affected his ability to talk and interact with others. But 10 years ago, the Poway High senior found a different way to communicate. Alexander is what’s know as an autistic savant, with perfect pitch, a near-photographic memory for music and a surprising facility with the saxophone and piano.

That natural talent earned him an invitation to UC San Diego’s annual Jazz Camp in 2015; a job as a session musician and transcriber at a local recording studio; a coveted slot in next month’s All-States High School Honor Choirs concerts in San Jose; and a trip to Carnegie Hall in April with his fellow members of Poway High’s Die Lieder Singers ensemble.

Vocal coach Brandon Sherman has been working with Alexander for six months and said he’s never had a student with such an unusual mix of abilities and limitations.


“He learns music very quickly, but he’s never spoken to me with more than one-word responses or explosions of joy and laughter,” said Sherman, who runs Sherman Vocal Studios in Escondido, is director of musical theater for the Poway school district and president of the Star Repertory Theatre in Escondido.

“When you watch him on the keys you can see his brain working,” Sherman said. “He’s like Mozart where he can hear the music in his head. It’s beautiful and fun to watch.”

Poway High senior Alexander Pruetting, seated, with his fellow members of the band Major Distraction, drummer Charlie Kroepal, left, bassist Harry Rueckert and his brother Nathan Pruetting on electric guitar. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Although Alexander, 18, grew up in a musical family, his unusual abilities took time to develop. Cheryl and Chris Pruetting met in 1990 when they both auditioned to play saxophone in a reggae band at San Diego State University.


Chris went on to a career with Qualcomm, where he’s director of technical marketing and business development. Cheryl became the band director for grade schools in Oceanside. They married 24 years ago and Alexander was the first-born of their three sons.

Alexander seemed to be developing normally, despite chronic ear infections, but a couple weeks after his second birthday he had a fever-induced seizure and was never the same, Cheryl said. His voice shifted into the falsetto range and he began avoiding eye contact. Within a month, he was diagnosed on the autism spectrum with the intellectual capabilities of a newborn infant.

“It was really hard,” said Cheryl, who quit her job to care for Alexander full time. “I was in a very dark world for a while.”

Until he was 4 years old, Alexander communicated only with rhythmic grunts. By kindergarten, he could string a few words together. But whenever he sang, Alexander was able to articulate long passages. And when he learned to play keyboard, he could recognize notes and chords by ear and immediately play and memorize music after hearing it once.


Encouraged by her son’s musical passion, Cheryl started teaching him to play instruments and sing. When she discovered how much he enjoyed an audience, she produced a talent show featuring Alexander and the other nine students with autism at Garden Road Elementary School in Poway.

“Before they were nobody. Suddenly they had a name. Now they weren’t the weirdo class anymore, they were the Eagle Stars,” she said.

With a full-time classroom aide, Alexander gradually began to excel in school. At Poway High, he’s in regular classes where he earns straight As in every subject except English.

In his teens, Alexander began showing great proficiency playing jazz music on the alto saxophone. Local trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos was so impressed with his playing three years ago that he recommended Alexander for the prestigious UCSD Jazz Camp.


“What stands out about Alex is his sense for hearing music and for staying focused,” Castellanos told the Union-Tribune in 2015. “When he puts his horn to his mouth, it’s amazing. He has perfect pitch. He hears a recording and then he can play it back for you on his sax.”

At Poway High, Alexander plays alto sax in the jazz and concert bands and is the first student with autism to play all four years in the marching band. He is a bass singer in the school’s Die Lieder Singers choir.

Fellow Die Lieder member Nidhi Deshiikan, 17, said Alexander is well known around the school “for his insane talent” and his friendly nature.

“He’s an amazing guy. At school, he loves giving hugs,” she said. “He’s very open to people, very friendly. Not everyone at the school is open to Alex, but most people are.”


Because he can learn his vocal parts so quickly, choir director Jessica Schemmel often calls on Aelxander to teach other singers their parts, be it baritone, tenor or soprano.

On the downside, Deshiikan said, because Alexander is such a quick-study, he sometimes grows bored during choir practice and gets in trouble for singing along with the other vocal sections.

Sherman, his vocal coach, said Alexander has a huge vocal range, but it’s in the bass range where he has the most control, power and emotional tonality.

During a music practice at his family’s Poway home on Sunday, Alexander played piano and sang a duet of John Lennon’s “Imagine” with Deshiikan, and he delighted in a rock ‘n’ roll jam session in the garage with the youth band Major Distraction.


He plays keyboard in the quartet that includes three sixth-graders: his younger brother Nathan, 12, who plays electric guitar and sings; drummer Charlie Kroepel and bassist Harry Rueckert. Alexander powered through a pair of ‘80s rock songs that he’d heard just once before, adding improvised keyboard solos and harmony as he went.

While he can easily express himself through music, Alexander is not able to explain in words what music means to him or how it feels to perform in front of a crowd. Instead, these questions are met with smiles and whoops of glee.

Cheryl said she’d like her son to study music production so he can turn his transcription and music memorizing skills into a career in the recording studio. But Alexander has said he’d prefer to be a stuffed animal doctor or a cast member at Disneyland.

Whatever he does, music is sure to be a part of it. In his words, it’s something that’s been deep in his heart for as long as he can remember.


“I love how you can know the notes,” he said, “and sing in tune with them.”


pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com