Turtles gather for sweet sounds of violinist

About a year and a half ago, violinist Zac Clejan—also known as Clejan or @thetrapviolonist on social media—stood on the banks of a pond in one of his favorite parks in Los Angeles. As he waited for his videographer to start filming, he spotted a turtle poking its head out of the water.

“I was like, all right, let’s play ‘Crazy Train’ for this turtle and see what happens,” Clejan tells Popular Science.

He hit record on his Meta glasses, entertained the turtles with Ozzy Osbourne, and then forgot about the video for months. When he eventually stumbled upon it again and decided to post it on social media. The video went viral overnight.

“It was just a beautiful thing that stemmed from this connection with nature,” he adds.

In another video, Clejan—originally from Atlanta, Georgia—plays ‘Yeah!’ by Usher as more and more turtles poke their heads out of the water, seemingly intrigued by the music. He estimates that his turtle videos have racked up 15 to 20 million views.

It’s not totally surprising for his playing to have caught the turtle’s attention. Multiple studies show that animals respond to music and that it can calm some of them down during stressful situations.

Clejan comes from a musical family, and he started training in classical violin at just three years old. As it often happens with many young children forced to learn a musical instrument, he didn’t enjoy it. Instead, he gravitated toward hip hop and trap music. In high school Clejan tried to become a rapper, but it wasn’t meant to be, and so in college he decided to take a hiatus from music.

“I got some degrees in marketing and moved to L.A. and was working in corporate for a while,” he explains. But then he saw an opportunity “to try music again, combining my love for rap with my classical mastery.”

a violinist reaches out to a turtle in a pond with his violin — *The turtles have helped Clejan expand his audience–both reptilian and human. CREDIT: Zac Clejan.*

Six years ago, he quit his job to become a full time artist. Clejan found joy in returning to his childhood instrument with the newfound freedom of playing whatever he wanted: Drake, Young Thug, Young Jeezy—music that his orchestra director and teachers certainly wouldn’t have approved of. He also knew that he had to build up his social media presence. This brings us back to the turtle videos, which he first posted about a year and a half ago.

The turtles, “low key changed the true directory of my career,” he admits, “my Instagram was dead before. I’d found success on TikTok but not Instagram, and posting these turtles reignited my account and it’s just been a big, big blessing.”

Since the turtles, Clejan has expanded his audience, playing for animals including cows and horses. This year he plans to release his third studio album, and he’ll soon be starting his first tour across eight cities in the US.

As they say in social media, all it takes is one viral video…and perhaps a few helpful turtles!

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