Two acts of Russian-born Anton Mordasov’s career have been written and a new one is unfolding.  In the first, he became a highly successful pianist, winning prizes in some of the world’s most prestigious competitions.  Then, in the second, through a quirk in the US immigration laws he was sent from Texas to Novosibirsk in central Siberia, for two years.  The third act is in motion.  He is back in Texas with a permanent resident’s ‘green card,’ a major milestone towards his goal of American citizenship.

 

On February 2, 2007 Mordasov will perform in the Lewisville Lake International Chamber Music Series.  The series is operated by the Lewisville Lake Symphony in cooperation with the University of North Texas.

 

Novosibirsk is where Mordasov was born. He began his musical studies at the age of five and, at eleven, appeared with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra.  After studying at the Novosibirsk State Conservatory he was accepted by the Moscow Conservatory of Music.

 

In 1990, Mordasov was awarded the first prize at the Sergei Rachmaninov International Piano Competition in Moscow.  Following the award, Mr Mordasov gave a solo performance in Switzerland under the auspices of Alexander Conus Rachmaninov, grandson of the composer.

 

In the same year he won the bronze in the Tchaikovsky International competition.  The competition, held once every four years and regularly attracts more than 600 applications from around the world. Thirty-two earlier, during the Cold War, Van Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky and was launched to worldwide fame.  

 

Later Mordasov was one of 35 participants invited to participate in the Tenth and Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions.

 

In 1996, he entered the ‘Artist Diploma’ program at TCU in Fort Worth,. In the same year, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the New Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

 

Anton Mordasov has given concerts in his native Russia, as well as in Germany, England, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy and Japan.  In the United States, he has also given recitals in Houston and other cities across Texas, Palm Beach (broadcast by PBS), Augusta and New Orleans.  His 1998 performance at the Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center was highly acclaimed by the New York Times.   (The New York Times reviews Anton Modasov)

 

He won the second prize in the 2001 New Orleans International Piano Competition.

 

In 2002, having fallen in love with America, he decided to apply for a ‘green card’ as the first step towards citizenship.  That’s when his troubles began.  He also decided to transfer into UNT’s graduate program.  It quickly became evident that one cannot get a new student visa after applying for a ‘green card’ and a ‘green card’ would only be forthcoming through the US embassy in his country of origin.  Goodbye Texas.

 

Siberia is a reasonable place to live if you have never experienced life in another part of the planet.  There is snow on the ground ten months of the year.  Nothing can grow locally so food has to be shipped in.  There are no fresh vegetables.  Meat gets thawed and frozen, thawed again and frozen on its journey to the point it can only graded on chewability.  

 

Normally, the temperature only goes down to -35°F for a few weeks in winter.  The first winter of Anton’s return to Novosibirsk, the temperature went down to -40°F and stayed there for weeks.  One night he almost died from the cold and suffered the first stages of frostbite before being saved by a friend.

 

One of the dilemmas for somebody in Mordasov’s situation is deciding which friends are good and which could be a liability.  The US embassy looks askance at anybody associating with criminals.  Given the nature of the tax system, conflicting laws and rampant corruption, essentially any Russian could become a felon if they sufficiently offended a local official or resisted the demands of the institutionalized organized crime.

 

A lot of Russians want to leave Russia and it took two years for Mordasov’s file to reach the surface of the embassy’s massive pile. During that time Mordasov didn’t know if he was doomed to Siberia or whether he would be able to return to America.  The embassy finished preliminary work on his application in February 2006 and instructed him to come for an interview.  He was broke and Moscow is far from Siberia.  With the help of his family in Siberia and friends back in the US, he scraped up the money for the journey.  The embassy gave him his ‘green card’.  He returned to the United States in August.  

 

“’We had booked Anton for last season,’ says Peggy Akerson who runs the Chamber Music Series for the Lewisville Lake Symphony.  ‘It’s not often we find one of our artists has been sent to Siberia so we have rebooked him for the 2006-2007 series.  We were happy and relieved to see him step off the plane at DFW.’