Alexandrina Milcheva

The Bulgarian mezzo-soprano, Alexandrina [Aleksandrina] Milcheva-Nonova, was born in Smiadovo, Bulgaria, as the youngest of three sisters in the family of an orthodox priest. As a young child, her family moved to the town of Shoumen, where she completes her high school studies. In this period she sang in the school choir. Her initiation in the art of singing was a complete failure, despite her beautiful voice - she applied to the Conservatory of Sofia, but was not admited due to 'a lack of voice characteristics and a career perspective'. Although she had another dream - archeology, she did not give up the necessity of singing and the first obstacles failed to discourage her. Her goal was to become a professional musician, and she commenced to accomplish it with a pedantic staunchness and discipline: first as a member of the choir at the Opera of Varna, and later as a soloist of the Singing Society of Mr. Michael Milkov with the National Radio. During this period, she started her education of singing technique with Professor Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin, with whom she worked for 5 years.