Born in Razgrad, Bulgaria, Vania Milanova studied with Peter P. Arnaudov at the Sofia Academy of Music and at the Guildhall School of Music in London. As a 20-year-old she was a laureate of the Tchaikovsky, Queen Elisabeth and Paganini Competitions. She also won the Grand Prix of the Kocian Competition.

She played with the greatest orchestras in England and recorded for the BBC and the Italian Label RS. She has performed with great success in Israel, France, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, South America and South Africa. Her musical career was launched through contacts with renowned Bulgarian conductors Dobrin Petkov, Vasil Stefanov Vasil Kazandjiev, Dimitar Manolov and Emil Tabakov. Her meetings with conductors such as Vernon Handy, Charles Rosen, Tamas Vasari, Paavo Berglund, Erich Bergen, Dmitry Kitajenko and Mark Kadin also made a definitive mark on her career as a musician.

In 1985, Vania Milanova was the first female artist to record all 24 capriccios of Paganini. She gave the Bulgarian premieres of violin concertos by Walton, Elgar, Britten and others. She is a member of the Horowitz festival and was part of the violin jury of the 1994 Tchaikovsky Competition. Since 2003 she teaches the violin at Bilkent University in Ankara.