A rising star in the viola world, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Milena’s summer festival appearances include Marlboro, Bowdoin, Sarasota, Strings, Bravo! Vail Valley, La Jolla Summerfest, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as Italy's Emilia Romagna Festival, Colombia’s Festicámara, and Mexico City’s Festival de Mexico. Among the conductors with whom she has worked are Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Otto-Werner Mueller. Milena is a winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition with the Dover Quartet, formerly The Old City String Quartet, currently the graduate quartet in residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Her numerous awards include prizes at the 2009 Tokyo International Viola Competition and the 2006 Sphinx Competition, Junior Division.

Milena has been privileged to collaborate with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Andres Cardenes, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Vadim Gluzman, Cho-Liang Lin, Philippe Quint, Joseph Silverstein, Paul Katz, Ida Kavafian, Soovin Kim, and Mitsuko Uchida. A violin student of Sergiu Schwartz and Melissa Pierson-Barrett for several years, she began studying viola with Michael Klotz at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2005. Milena graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, and Joseph de Pasquale. Milena is a foodie—loves the food channel and sampling all sorts of international delicacies—she enjoys baking for friends and family, word and board games, hiking, and just about anything that has to do with her family’s Silkenese puppy, Magellan (“Gelly”). Visit her and the Dover Quartet at http://www.doverquartet.com