In 1979, Mortazavi moved to the United States, continued his music and engineering education at Texas State University and eventually settled in California in 1985. There he started composing and arranging music for Iranian pop singers, and playing the violin in the background for singers such as Moein, Hayedeh and Sattar. He released his first album, "Bijan Mortazavi: Magic of His Music and His Songs", in 1990, and it became a best-seller among Persian albums that year. Mortazavi was interviewed on "The Tapesh Show" by Alireza Amirghassemi for the 1991 Persian New Year, at the end of which he performed the album's first song, "Asheghi Chieh", along with "Gole Sangam", on the piano, singing along with Sattar, Shahrum K and the show's presenters, to close the final Nowrooz episode.