Judy Needham’s living room buzzes with grownups, chattering about visas and piano teachers, clicking cameras and making a fuss.
One strikingly self-possessed little girl, not quite 2, moves serenely amid the flurry, cuddling a stuffed toy rabbit that’s bigger than she is and occasionally staring straight at the adults.
Her father, pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch, plays a complex melody. She pretends not to notice, but a minute later, she calmly hums the intricate tune perfectly. Obviously, the musical genes have been passed down.
Ioudenitch, 25, best-known to piano American buffs as the guy who burned his hand on a teapot and withdrew from the semifinals of the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, has added another chapter to an extraordinarily eventful life.
The burns, from which he has recovered, are just one in a series of hard-luck incidents. An automobile accident several years ago left him with permanent chest pain and forced him to carry a custom-made folding piano bench. Several near-misses at major competitions have increased his reputation within the musical community but left him short of the career he seeks.
But he has developed a knack for turning bad luck to good. He arrived in Fort Worth from Italy last week with his wife, Tatiana, and little Maria. Their entire worldly possessions were packed in three suitcases and two boxes. They will travel this week to Cleveland, where Ioudenitch will study on full scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Music, with living expenses underwritten by supporters in Fort Worth.
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Ioudenitch moved to Italy to continue his piano studies shortly after Maria’s birth in 1995. Tatiana visited him in Italy, but, when he arrived at the Cliburn last summer, he had not seen Maria since shortly after her birth.
The long-awaited father-daughter reunion took place in the airport at Milan, late last summer after Ioudenitch returned to Italy from the Cliburn.
Father and child knew each other only from photos; she recognized him before he recognized her.
By then, the wheels had been set in motion to bring Ioudenitch to America to study. At the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, he studied with Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia and Rosalyn Tureck. By last summer, he wanted to take a different direction.
The reputation of Armenian-born, Cleveland-based teacher-pianist Sergei Babayan as a coach of competition winners had preceded Babayan to the 1997 Cliburn. Babayan came to Fort Worth for the Cliburn finals to watch his pupil Katia Skanavi perform. Ioudenitch, who was already recovering from his second-degree burns, met with Babayan and inquired about the possibility of going to Cleveland to study.
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“I had heard his performance on the Internet,” Babayan explained, recalling Ioudenitch’s brilliant insight into Mozart, Liszt and Stravinsky. “Even though I have a strong class, I was ready to accept him on a professional level.”
However, Babayan is also interested in a strong, good personality, and he insisted on spending time with Ioudenitch.
“He is a great person, too, besides being a great talent,” Babayan said.
Based on Babayan’s remarkable record of spotting talent, the administration at the Cleveland Institute willingly accepts and grants scholarships on his recommendation. Ioudenitch will be Babayan’s sixth pupil.
Bringing the family from Russia, where Tatiana and Maria lived, to Italy, and then to the United States, involved the usual unpleasant maze of bureaucracies. The Italian Embassy in Moscow lost Tatiana’s passport, adding another month’s delay before Tatiana and Maria could leave Russia for Italy–in addition to the Russian reluctance to allow an entire family to leave Russia at one time.
But Frank Caputo, vice president of the Cleveland Institute, is expert at obtaining visas for international students.
The Cleveland Institute provided documentation showing that Ioudenitch had the financial means to study in Cleveland, and that he had additional financial support from Fort Worth for living expenses. Caputo coached Ioudenitch on the right things to say in his interview with consular officials in Milan.
Then, after securing a visa for Babayan, Caputo told immigration authorities that Ioudenitch would be more productive if his family were allowed to join him in the United States.
Already accepted to the Cleveland Institute for the fall semester, Ioudenitch remained with his family in Italy until all could travel together. The visas finally came through in early November, and the family arrived Nov. 13 in Fort Worth.
As for the future, Ioudenitch is focused on learning new repertoire with Babayan during a three-year diploma program. He isn’t sure about future competitions, although he still has several years of eligibility left.
And he should feel at home in Cleveland. Several other Russians, including Skanavi, Margarita Shevchenko, Alex Slobodyanik and Dmitri Teterin, are studying with Babayan. Ioudenitch is fluent in English and speaks confidently without an interpreter. Tatiana Ioudenitch, who is also a pianist, will work on learning the language along with devoting her time to Maria. Ioudenitch will doubtless maintain strong ties with Fort Worth, the source of much of his living expenses in Cleveland, although he has no performances scheduled in Texas for the immediate future.
He has a few concerts booked in Germany and Italy in the spring; he would like to return to Uzbekistan, where his professional musician parents still live, but he doesn’t see much hope.
“I like Uzbekistan,” he says, “but musical life there is nothing. That’s why I have to live in different countries.”