Stoika Milanova was born into a musical family in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Her father was Trendafil Milanov, violinist, teacher, and developer of the Milanov method, used in instructing violin students. Milanova first studied with her father and later enrolled at the Sofia State Academy of Music. She had later studies at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. Her first competition success came in 1967 at the Queen Elisabeth Competition where she captured second prize. In 1970 she won the City of London Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. Thereafter, she made regular appearances with major orchestras in the U.K. In 1972 she received a Grand Prix of the Charles Cros Academy for her recording of the two Prokofiev violin concertos on the Balkanton label.

Stoika Milanova toured throughout Europe in the 1970s and went on to score critical success with her 1975 appearances in Japan with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. She made a highly successful tour of Australia in 1976 and gave her U.S. and Canadian debuts in 1978. From around that time she made numerous appearances with pianists Radu Lupu and Malcolm Frager, making a notable recording with the latter of the first violin sonatas of Schumann and Brahms. Her scorching performance of the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto at a 1984 concert in Sofia, with the Bulgarian RTVO, was issued on Balkanton to critical acclaim.

From the early '80s Stoika Milanova often appeared in concert with her daughter, Yova, also a noted violinist. The two made a distinguished recording of the Vivaldi Concerto Grosso for two violins, cello, and strings, Op. 3/1. She also performed regularly with her sister Dora, a 1964 laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition. In the new century she has maintained a busy schedule of concerts while teaching at the Sofia State Academy of Music. Among her later recordings is the 2009 Balkanton CD of the Mozart Fifth Concerto and Mendelssohn Concerto in D minor for violin, piano, and strings.