Teenage Musician Catches Industry's Eye

At the age of 11, Alex Frenkel's first gig was at a Texas youth camp, and about two years ago, he began playing and singing locally.

Then last week, 16-year-old Alex got a phone call from A&R Select, a company in Hollywood, Calif., that discovers new music artists and connects them with the music industry. The company offered Alex an opportunity to possibly be heard by thousands and maybe by millions. "It was really amazing," said Alex, a Danbury High School junior.

The company found Frenkel's music on his Web site myspace.com/ alexfrenkel, and liked what it heard. The firm then had Alex sign a contract, which allows it to send his album to record labels in the United States and Europe and to movie companies. The teen plays guitar and sings and has written songs that are recorded on his first album, "heartful of gray cells," produced in winter 2004. He also plays bass guitar, piano and drums, which all are heard on the album.

Alex describes his generally acoustic music like this: "John Mayer and Ben Kweller playing a game of tug of war with musician Mike Einziger from the band Incubus" with a pop-punk band refereed by Coldplay.

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