Rex: A Musical Savant's Remarkable Strides

(CBS)  Five years ago, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl met an 8-year-old boy named Rex, who seemed to embody in one small person some of the most intriguing mysteries of the human mind - how it is that stunning ability and profound disability can coexist within the same person.

Rex was born blind, with brain damage so severe his mother Cathleen was told he might never walk or talk or do much of anything, and yet he has talent beyond anything most of us can imagine.

60 Minutes was so captivated by Rex that we decided to follow him, to keep coming back to see what the years would bring. The last time Stahl visited Rex and his mom, he was 10. Today he's 13 and he's as joyful as ever.

But before you meet Rex today, meet Rex as Stahl first did.

---

Rex Lewis-Clack then, as now, was a study in contrasts: blind and full of enthusiasm, yet unable to dress himself, or even carry on a basic conversation.

But with everything Rex couldn't do, he could perform a musical feat. Stahl played him a song he had never heard, with his old piano teacher singing along. Rex, who can't see the keys, was able to replay the entire sequence, after hearing it only once.

Rex is a musical savant, one of a handful of people in the world who share a mysterious combination of blindness, mental disability, and musical genius.

But away from the piano, he was easily upset, confused by basic concepts, such as the difference between a square and a circle, and unable to find his way around the apartment he'd lived in his whole life.

---

If you're interested in learning more about Rachel Flowers and her music, click here to visit her MySpace page.

---

Music seemed to be Rex's only real connection to the world -- to normalcy. And the question was how far it could take him.

Now, five years later at age 13, he is playing Debussy for audiences around the country.

He's grown more than a foot since Stahl saw him last, and his technique on the piano has improved dramatically. But the answer to how far Rex has come is more complex, like the savant mystery itself.

Rex greeted Stahl with the same warmth and enthusiasm as ever. "Can I give you a big hug?" he asked.

But he seemed to forget that Stahl already knew his mother Cathleen.

Rex still has the magical ability to hear a piece of music one time and retain it, and he's taking that into a whole new realm by singing. Stahl watched as Rex's voice teacher Angela Rasmussen sang him a song he'd never heard before, Schubert's Ave Maria in Latin.

Stahl thought the song was upsetting Rex, since he plugged his ears and started making noises. But we were wrong - Rex played and sang the song, again, after a single hearing - in Latin.

Sara Banta, Rex's piano teacher, is pushing him to improvise and transform music into different styles, like asking Rex to play the song Blue Moon, which he'd just heard for the first time, in the style of Mozart.

"The more he improvises, he gets into new and wilder things which is fun for him. And it's creative," Banta explained.

Banta said she doesn't do that as much with other students. "They don't do it as well."

Rex was born blind, with a giant cyst in his brain. He developed severe autistic symptoms: small noises would make him scream, and he kept his hands balled up in fists.

"That became the way he would be," says his mother Cathleen, holding her hands up, clenched. "You'd have to peel his fingers open."

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page »

[bmcafee3]

How about a CD by Rex and Rachel?

[tedcab]

If you designed your "post a comment" better you wouldn''t have all these people clicking the "publish" button multiple times. When it is pushed we get a message that says in essence that our attempt to post didn''t work, so we do it again, and again and again. Hello? Is anyone there? Get your act together!

[tedcab]

The Rex Clack story is wonderful, but I was very frustrated to have Lesley Stahl''s narration drown out all of the music. We know Lesley can talk %u2014 she''s no savant %u2014 but we would love to have heard more of Rex''s playing and less of Lesley talking.

[tedcab]

The Rex Clack story is wonderful, but I was very frustrated to have Lesley Stahl''s narration drown out all of the music. We know Lesley can talk %u2014 she''s no savant %u2014 but we would love to have heard more of Rex''s playing and less of Lesley talking.

[pdabbs-2009]

Watching this amazing story brought to mind questions raised in my mind when I learned that in dogs, like English setters, when pigmentation was missing in the auditory nerve during the embryonic stage of development, the dog would be deaf. Does this cross-dimension (auditory-visual) effect have any connection to the development of musical savants among blind children?

[naomitickle]

Many of our innate abilities can be seen in the structure of the face at day one. Note how many of the autistic children''s outer edge of the ear is C shaped. This indicates the love of music. When they are cupped out, they hear sound very clearly. Put the two together, here is the musician. Rex has both of these features including the aesthetic appreciation, which is the straight underside of the eyebrow. This indicates the need for balance and harmony and has a natural feel for how things flow. Often observered in musicians and artists. I have worked with several people with various disablities, the results have been amazing and very moving.

[deweytoo]

Your reporting on Rex Clack was one of the most inspirational things I''ve ever see. What a talent and what a delightful good young man. I hope you continue to follow up on his progress.

[deweytoo]

This is one of the most inspirational pieces I''ve ever see. Keep up the good work and keep following Rex. What a marvel and talent. I''m so glad you did this piece!

[frankhartzell1]

Fantastic report, great sound, film and reporting. One ommission, you should have mentioned the story of Blind Tom, a slave boy from the 19th century whose story is nearly identical to Rex (blind, DD and able to play anything on the piano after hearing it once)
http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/savant_profiles/tom_bethune

[frankhartzell1]

Fantastic report, great sound, film and reporting. One ommission, you should have mentioned the story of Blind Tom, a slave boy from the 19th century whose story is nearly identical to Rex (blind, DD and able to play anything on the piano after hearing it once)
http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/savant_profiles/tom_bethune