[ot-caption title= “Izzy Ercan and his friend Carson Poltorack, who is also a PC alum, play the violin and come together to form the duet Four Strings Attached. (via, Sun Sentinel)”]

Izzy Ercan, a 2015 PC graduate and current Vanderbilt University attendee, is a very talented musician who will be remembered by many for his outstanding performances at Pine Crest. Izzy knew that he had a passion for music even from a young age. He shares, “I started playing violin when I was four years old; I had already started piano lessons a few months earlier, so it was actually my second instrument. During the first few months of learning piano, my mom noticed that I really liked listening to a CD of an Andre Rieu concert. Rieu is a famous classical musician. I would always be humming along or request for certain tracks to be played, so she figured it would be wise to sign me up for classes. I developed a pretty good ear from the start, and I remember thinking how cool it was that I could play a rough sketch of whatever I heard on CD’s or the radio. I was hooked and the rest is history.”[spacer height=”20px”]

While at Pine Crest, Izzy met Carson Poltorack, who shared the same passion Izzy did for creating music. They discovered that they both loved playing the violin and that they played well together. So, they decided to start making music as a group. This duet, eventually named “Four Strings Attached,” became more famous as they started to post videos of the covers and music that they created. Izzy says, “When we first met we were actually rivals. The PC Boca and PCFL middle school orchestras had a joint concert during our 8th grade year, and the best two violinists (concertmasters) of both orchestras had to take turns playing a solo in the concert. But, once we got to know each other in the high school orchestra; we became best friends. At our first Playing for Change Concert, which was our first performance doing “pop violin,” we were actually introduced as “Ismail Ercan and Carson Poltorack” and I remember thinking that it’d be cool if we could come up with a good name. Carson suggested either Four Strings or Eight Strings Attached. Even though there are eight strings between our instruments, four just sounded better, so we stuck with that.”[spacer height=”20px”]

In 2015, Izzy and Carson were featured on the Ellen Degeneres website, showcasing their amazing talent. When asked about the experience, Izzy replied, “It was a very cool experience. I actually had already graduated from Pine Crest, but had to make up an AP Euro exam the next day. I was busy studying when I got a call from Carson. We had been texting because we had noticed that our video’s views were shooting up randomly (it went up about 1,200 in an hour), but I still was surprised when he called me because he knew I was studying. When he told me the news, I literally remember flipping out and sharing the news with my parents and then on Facebook. It was nice having a little momentary fame and being recognized by my peers for having a unique talent. It was definitely a highlight of my senior year. We hope we can have another breakthrough at some point in the future.” Izzy and Carson are still making new covers and music today. To check out their talent, you can go on their Facebook and Youtube pages where they have posted several performances.[spacer height=”20px”]

Facebook: Four Strings Attached [spacer height=”20px”]

Youtube: Four Strings Attached [spacer height=”20px”]

Sources: Sun Sentinel Photo Sources: Sun Sentinel, Facebook [spacer height=”20px”]