Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on August 5, 1945, Stoika Trendafilova Milanova learned to play the violin from her father, a teacher and conservatory founder who also wrote a method bearing his name. She grew up and continued her violin studies in Sofia with her elder sister, the pianist Dora Milanova, before joining the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow from 1964 to 1969, where her teacher was David Oïstrakh. In 1967, 2nd prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, which she won ahead of Gidon Kremer, launched her career as an international soloist, as did first prize in the Carl Flesch Competition in 1970. In addition to frequent tours with prestigious orchestras, Stoika Milanova recorded the great concertos of the repertoire, Vivaldi's Four Seasons , the Violin Concertos of Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Her breathtaking technique on a historic violin, Guarneri del Gesú's Consolo from 1733, astounded critics with every performance until the 1980s, in solo recitals and duets with her sister. Retired from the stage, Stoika Milanova taught at the Venezuelan State Conservatory from 2005 to 2010, then at the Sofia Conservatory from 2016. Based in Madrid, she died on September 29, 2024 at the age of 79.
